Sleepy Little Town
by mockinjay14
Summary: Twin siblings Peeta and Delly Mellark are sent to the sleepy town of Panem Falls to spend the summer with their Great Uncle, but in a town where nobody can be trusted, will they succeed at sleuthing out the mysteries of the town? Or will a supernatural force drive them apart and destroy the whole world? Based off of Gravity Falls. I don't own The Hunger Games or Gravity Falls.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Tourist Trapped

Summer break, a time for leisure, recreation, and taking it easy... Unless you're me. We speed off down the forest trail – driving as fast as this golf cart can take us. But it's not fast enough. A creature so humongous that it sways the trees above us follows close behind. It's giant shadow falls on our small cart as it catches up to us. It reaches for us – we are just barely able to avoid being captured. Next time we may not be so lucky. I take a heavy breath and swerve the car to the side.

My name is Peeta Mellark, the girl holding in her puke next to me is my sister Delly. You may be wondering what we're doing in a golf cart, fleeing from a creature of unimaginable horror... Rest assured, there's a perfectly logical explanation.

It all began when our parents decided we could use some fresh air. They shipped us up north to a sleepy town called Panem Falls, Oregon, to stay at our great Uncle's place in the woods. My sister tended to look on the bright side of things; but I was having a hard time getting used to my new surroundings. And then there was our Great Uncle Mitchell. Our uncle had transformed his house into a tourist trap he called the Mystery Shack. The real mystery was why anyone came. And guess who had to work there. Me. It looked like it was gonna be the same boring routine all summer. Until one fateful day;

"Kids," Our great uncle – or Grunkle as he insisted we call him – bursts into the gift shop of the Mystery Shack. "I need one of you to go hand up some signs for the shack out in the woods."

"Not it!" Delly calls.

"Not it!" I call back.

Grunkle Mitch looks at his other two employees – Finnick Odair and Katniss Everdeen. Finnick is a tall man in his early twenties, he has bronze hair and green eyes. He is funny and the friendliest guy you could ever meet. Katniss is a fifteen year old girl with black hair and silver eyes. She is very pretty – and I'll admit I might have a small crush on her – I know, it's crazy to like an older woman – but I'm only three years younger than her, and anyway it's just a small crush.

Finnick frowns at Grunkle Mitch. "I'm gonna have to say not it as well."

Grunkle Mitch looks at Katniss. "Sweetheart, will you hang these signs up?"

Katniss looks up from her magazine. "I would... But it's too far," She grumbles. "Can't reach."

"I wish I could fire all of you," Grunkle Mitch looks back at me. "Peeta, looks like you're hanging the signs,"

"That's not fair," I protest. "And I always feel like I'm being watched out in the woods."

"Oh brother," He rolls his eyes.

"I'm serious! And look – last time I was out there I got mosquito bites that spell out 'BEWARE'!" I hold up my arm pointing out the bites.

"Kid that says 'BEWARB'."

I sigh and take the signs from Grunkle Mitch, and head into the woods. As I nail the signs to various trees, I complain to myself. It's not any fair! Grunkle Mitch always picks on me. I go to nail the last sign into a tree but when I hit the nail against the tree with my hammer, it makes a metallic clanking sound. I tap the tree again and it makes the same sound. My eyebrows furrow and I pull at the bark, revealing a hollow part of the tree where a small machine sits. I frown and pull one of the switches. Immediately, I hear a sound behind me. I spin around and find a trap door has opened up in the ground. I run to the opening, sit down next to it, and find a dusty old book inside. I pull the book out of the hole and close the trap door. When I brush the dust off I can see the cover – a piece of gold paper has been cut into the shape of a six fingered hand and glued onto the book. In the center of the hand is the number '3'.

I pull open the first page where a piece of paper is glued on. It says, 'Property of M-'. That's all I can read because the rest of the paper has been torn off. I turn to the next page and read aloud. "It's hard to believe it's been six years since I began to study the strange and wondrous secrets of Panem Falls, Oregon." Strange and wondrous secrets?"

I flip to the last page the has writing on it. "Unfortunately, my suspicions have been confirmed. I'm being watched. I have to hide the book before he finds it. Remember- in Panem Falls there is no one you can trust." And at the bottom of the page in bold print it reads, 'TRUST NO ONE!' I begin to wonder who the author is, and why the pages cut off.

"What are you reading?" Delly says suddenly, interrupting my thoughts. I didn't know she was there. I look back down at the page then close the book.

"Ahh, nothing."

Delly laughs. "Are you actually not gonna tell me?"

I stare at her for a moment. We have the same blue eyes. She's my twin sister! We tell each other everything. I think I can trust her with this secret. "Fine," I say. "But let's go somewhere private."

Back at the Mystery Shack – Delly and I sit in the living room while I tell her about the journal. "It's like Panem Falls has a secret dark side," I say. "And get this, after a certain point – the pages stop... like they guy who was writing it mysteriously disappeared."

"Wow!" Delly exclaims. "So there are all these weird creatures in the woods?"

"Yeah! And-" The doorbell rings.

Delly sighs. "Time to spill the beans, I have a date."

I blink at her. "You already got yourself a boyfriend?"

"What can I say," Delly shrugs. "I'm irresistible."

I laugh. "Just go get the door."

"Right." She stands up and runs to the door.

The guy standing at the door waves awkwardly at me. "I'm normal – man."

"He means Norman." Delly says.

I look at him; he has red stuff dripping down his chin and a stick stuck to his hoodie.

"Is that blood?" I ask pointing to his chin.

Norman pauses for a moment. "It's jelly."

"Okay..." I say.

"Well, we better go," Delly says and they leave the shack. I don't trust him. I decide.

I go to the room I share with Delly in the attic and look through the journal. Norman can't be normal. He has to be some kind of paranormal creature. I stop when I reach a page about zombies, I skim over the page. "Usually mistaken for teenagers." I read aloud. Norman could be a zombie. I need to investigate this.

I run out of the Mystery Shack and follow Delly and Norman around town. I notice that he has a limp, and he is very clumsy, I finally get paranoid enough to pull Delly aside.

"What is it?" Delly snaps.

"There's something about Norman I think you should know." I explain.

"Do you think Norman is a vampire?" Delly asks.

"No, I think Norman is a..." I flip the journal open and show Delly the page. She gasps and I look at the journal to find a page about gnomes. "Oh, sorry wrong page." I flip to the correct page and Delly scoffs.

"You think Norman is a zombie! You've got to be kidding me."

"It would explain his limp," I says. "And... have you noticed he never blinks!"

"Maybe he just blinks at the same time as you,"

"Delly, I-"

"You're just being paranoid, Peeta." With that Delly walks back over to Norman and they go into the woods together."

Maybe Delly's right. I go back into the attic and sit down facing the window. I stare at the woods my sister disappeared into. But why would they go into the woods together? Norman is totally a zombie, and he wants to eat Delly's brain. If I don't get there fast Delly could be dead. I stand up and run outside. I spot Katniss standing next to the Mystery Shack's golf cart, Grunkle Mitch likes to call it 'The Mystery Cart' – anyway I run over to Katniss, when I reach her, I'm panting.

"Katniss, I need to use the mystery cart. Delly's new boyfriend is a zombie and he's gonna eat her brains unless I can get there in time!" I say.

Katniss blinks at me, and for a second I think she won't let me use the cart, then she smirks and tosses me the keys. "Don't hit any pedestrians."

I grin, jump into the cart and speed off into the forest the same way Delly and Norman went. As I get closer, I hear Delly's cries for help and hit the gas. When I finally get there I find Delly tied up, surrounded by a bunch of gnomes. I look down and find a shovel in the passenger seat. I pick it up and jump out of the cart. "What's going on?" I ask and the gnomes look at me.

"You were right... sort of," Delly says. "Norman turned out to be a bunch of gnomes,"

"Gnomes," I say. "I was way off."

One gnome jumps up onto a rock. "I know this might look... strange but we aren't trying to hurt your sister." He says in Norman's voice.

I look back to my tied up sister. "You're... not?"

"Of course not, we're just trying to kidnap her so she can be our bride."

"I'll never marry you," Delly says and struggles to free herself.

I roll my eyes and use the shovel to cut the ropes, and pull Delly back to the cart.

"Hey!" The main gnome shouts. "You shouldn't have messed with us, the gnomes are a great and powerful race."

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that," I say and start up the cart, speeding off back towards the Mystery Shack.

That's when we realized the gnomes could morph into one humongous gnome. So here we are speeding down the forest in a golf cart fleeing from a gigantic gnome, meanwhile fighting off smaller gnomes, and trying not to crash the cart into a tree. One gnome took my hat! And I needed it to cover up an embarrassing birthmark on my forehead!

We make it back to the Mystery Shack, but unfortunately, the giant gnome made it back here as well. "You might as well give up now," The gnome leader calls down.

"Fine," Delly says. "I'll marry you,"

"What?" I turn to Delly as the leader jumps down from the giant gnome and puts a ring on Delly's finger.

"You may now kiss the bride," Delly says.

"Oh, don't mind if I do," The gnome leader says, then leans down in for a kiss, closing his eyes. Delly smirks then grabs a leaf blower, sucking the gnome into it. She puts it on reverse and the machine shoots the gnome into the gigantic one, scattering them into hundreds of little gnomes. I laugh as Delly scares the gnomes away with the leaf blower.

"Thanks for looking out for me today, Peeta." Delly says when all the gnomes are gone.

I shrug. "What kind of a twin brother would I be if I didn't have your back?" Delly laughs. "I wonder what else is out there in those woods."

"Who knows?" Delly shrugs. "Although I'm sure your journal could tell you all about it,"

"Yeah,"

We go back into the shack and find Grunkle Mitch at the cash register. "What happened to you?" He laughs, and I roll my eyes and walk out of the room. "Wait!" He stops me and I go back into the gift shop. "It turns out... I overstocked on some items. Why don't you kids each pick something out, on the house."

"What's the catch?"

"The catch is you do it before I change my mind." I smile and find the hat section. I pick a baseball hat with a pine tree on it and place it on my head – hiding my stupid birthmark. I look at Delly who has picked out a grappling hook. We laugh and go upstairs to the attic. Delly plays with her grappling hook, and I decide to add to the journal.

 _'This journal told me there was no one I could trust. But when you battle a hundred gnomes side by side with someone you realize that they've probably always got your back. Our uncle told us there was nothing strange about this town but who knows what other secrets are waiting to be unlocked?'_

 **Grunkle Mitch's POV**

I close up shop after another long day. With every passing day, time goes slower. At least I've got the kids here to brighten my life. Having them here has only fueled my motivation to pull this off. When I finally finish what I set out to do all those years ago – everything will change.

I move to the vending machine, enter the combination and the secret door opens. Moving into the doorway, I look around one last time – if those kids ever found out what I'm doing... everything I've worked for could be jeopardized. Sighing, I pull the door closed behind me. Time to get to work.

 **When I watched Gravity Falls for the first time back in 2012, I imagined the characters as Hunger Games characters instead. (Does anyone else do that with shows?) I never really planned on making this Fanfiction until early this year when the show ended, that's when I realized how bad I needed to write this. It's going to be about thirty chapters long, this is my first fanfic that I've ever posted before I've finished writing it. I don't know how often I'm going to update. Anyway, I hope you guys like this story, tell me your thoughts in the reviews.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The Legend Of The Gobblewonker

"Want to have a syrup race?" Delly asks, making me look up from the newspaper.

"You don't even need to ask," I say and grab a bottle of maple syrup. Syrup races are easy, you hold a bottle of syrup upside down over your mouth – the first one to get syrup on their tongue wins – today, that person is Delly. I sigh and pick the newspaper back up. "Wait, Delly look at this ad." I say after a moment, and show her the page.

"A monster photo contest?" Delly asks. "We see weird things all the time,"

"Did we get any photos of those gnomes?" I ask.

"No, just some beard hair,"

"Kids," Grunkle Mitch walks into the room. "I've decided that today is family bonding day."

"Family bonding day?" I ask thinking about last time we had a family bonding day.

"It's so cold in jail," Delly complains.

"Look," Grunkle Mitch sighs. "I know I haven't been... the best caretaker, but we are gonna have some real fun today." He pulls out some cloth. "Now put on these blindfolds and get in the car.

"Wait, what?"

Later on we sit in the car, and Grunkle Mitch actually made us put blindfolds on. "It's like my senses are heightened!" Delly says touching my face.

The car swerves a little. "Are you wearing a blindfold too Grunkle Mitch?" I ask.

"Can it, kid!"

We finally arrive at our destination – the lake – and we jump out of the car. "What are we doing here?" Delly asks.

"It's fishing season, so I figured we could spend the day together," Grunkle Mitch says. "I've never had fishing buddies before... probably because nobody at the lounge likes me," He shrugs. "And look I even made you fishing hats!" He pulls two hats out of the car and hands them to us. I frown and take the hat. Their plain fisherman hats with our names spelt out in colorful felt letters that have been sewn on, but he spelt my name wrong.

"This says 'Peety'," I point out.

"I didn't have any a's," He shrugs.

"I seen it!" An old man shouts as he runs into the parking lot. "I seen it again!" A crowd starts to form around him. "Hurry before it scrabdoodles away!"

"Hurry before what scarbdoodles away?" Delly asks.

"The Gobblewonker! It's a sea serpent fifty feet high!"

"Dad!" A man shouts at the older man. "Didn't I tell you to quit scaring the customers away?" Then he pulls a spray bottle out and proceeds to spray the old man, who runs away. I look over at Delly and we walk toward him while Grunkle Mitch unpacks his fishing stuff.

"A Gobblewonker?" I say casually. "You really saw one?"

"Thad I did boy," He sighs. "I'm Old Man Latier,"

"Pleasure to meet you," I say and shake his bandaged hand. "I'm Peeta Mellark and this is my sister Delly,"

"What does scrabdoodle mean?" Delly asks.

Old Man Latier looks between us. "Well... I've got to go, my son doesn't like me hanging round these parts," He runs away, and I'm left to my thoughts.

"Delly," I say. "If we got a picture of that... Gobblewonker, we could win the photo contest,"

"And we could use the prize money to buy a human size hamster ball!" Delly exclaims.

"Yeah..." I chuckle and scratch my hair. "We could do that..."

"But... you kids are going fishing today with me," Grunkle Mitch says. "You don't even have your own boat,"

Just then, Finnick appears by the dock in a boat, a red headed girl about his age inside.

"Finnick, can you take us in your boat to get a picture of a lake monster?" Delly asks.

"Sure dudes," Finnick shrugs. "Annie and I were just looking for something to do out on the lake today,"

"So you're just going to ditch me?" Grunkle Mitch crosses his arms.

I really want to go monster hunting today, but my grunkle planned the whole day. He was excited to spend time with us... We can't leave him today. We'll have to come back to the lake later in the week and search for the Gobblewonker then.

"Grunkle Mitch, we'll go fishing with you some other time, alright?" Delly says and pulls me into Finnick's boat with her.

"Good luck fishing today, sir." Finnick says, starting the boat, and pulling away from the dock. I watch as we get further and further away from my grunkle, and can't help but feel awful. Finnick motions to the girl. "Annie, these are my pals from work, Peeta and Delly. Guys this is my friend Annie."

"Hi," Annie waves to us. "You're looking for some kind of a lake monster?"

"Yes," I shrug.

"We might be out in the sun for a while then, Finnick pull back into the dock so we can get sunscreen." Annie says.

"Sure thing," Says Finnick. "These two are so pale they'll be burnt to a crisp by the end of the day without it,"

Once we are lathered in sunscreen, and I've picked up some cameras at the gift shop, we get back in the boat. "Okay," I say, trying to distract myself from my guilt. "You know in the movies where they're trying to get a picture of the monster but then they misplace their camera... or run out of film?"

"I hate when that happens!" Finnick exclaims.

"That's why I purchased fourteen disposable cameras."

"Put one under your hat!" Says Delly.

"Okay?" I say tucking it into the hat and putting it back onto my head. "Anyway, I'm gonna hand these out so there's no way we won't get a picture of the monster, so whatever you do, don't lose the cameras."

"Wait, lose the cameras?" Delly asks.

"No! That's the opposite of what I just said."

"Oh... well, I just threw two overboard."

I sigh. "It's okay we still have twelve cameras."

Suddenly, a bird flies right above us scaring Annie. "Bird!" She screams and throws a camera in it's direction. I sigh as it plops into the lake.

"Eleven," I say. "We have elven cameras."

We sit on the water for two hours with no luck. "Maybe she won't show herself today," Finnick sighs.

"Maybe she's camera shy," Annie smiles.

"So how did you two meet?" Delly asks.

"I met this weirdo here at the lake when we were little." Says Finnick. "I was ten and she was seven."

"I was trying to catch the baby fishies that swim in the little shallow parts." Annie explains.

"And I threw a clod of dirt at her," Finnick says. "The fish swam away and Annie started crying, so I caught one for her. And we've been best friends ever sense."

"You two should date!" Delly tells them.

Finnick laughs awkwardly. "Uhh... Maybe we should turn back for the day, I don't think the Gobblewonker will show herself again."

"Fine," I say. "But we should-" I'm cut off when the boat lurches toward the side. "What was-" The head of a huge creature emerges from the water.

"Quick, get a picture!" Delly says right before the monster screeched making Finnick start the boat up. We jet across the water with the Gobblewonker close behind. Annie starts throwing her cameras at the monster, Delly and I join in. Not dying is a better option than not getting a picture.

The Gobblewonker chases us into a cave, but gets stuck in the opening. "Peeta!" Finnick exclaims. "You can get a picture of it now!"

"No I can't." I sigh. "We threw all the cameras at the monster."

"What about the one in your hat?" Delly asks.

I forgot about that camera! I take the camera out and snap several photos of the creature while it struggles to get through the opening. "You get any good ones?" Annie asks.

"They're all good ones!" I say. It's true. The monster is so close that every photo is really good. But then a rock falls on the Gobblewonker's head and the creature falls down with a loud metallic clank.

Finnick runs to the monster and hits it, making more metallic sounds. "Dude, it's a machine," He pulls a scrap of metal away revealing a control room where Old Man Latier sits, pressing buttons.

"Old Man Latier?" Delly asks.

"Aww, donkey spidle," He looks at us. "You caught me."

"Why did you do all this?" Annie questions him gently.

"I... I... I just wanted attention." He looks down at his bare feet.

"And..." I say. "You built all this?"

"Yes siree," He sighs. "My son hasn't been paying attention to me lately. I build evil robots for revenge, and when I'm neglected... You have no idea what us old folks do just to spend time with their family."

His worlds start to make me feel guilty all over again about how we ditched our Grunkle today. He was really excited to go fishing with us. I look at Delly and can tell she feels just as bad as I do.

"Well, I guess the real lake monster is you two," Finnick says, reading our thoughts.

"Delly," I say. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"There really is only one thing we can do now." Delly says. We get back in Finnick's boat, and we find our Grunkle's boat – 'The Mitch O War'.

"Oh," He says when he spots us. "What do you want?"

"Grunkle Mitch, we're sorry we ditched you and spent the day looking for some mythical dinosaur." Delly says. "We realized the only dinosaur we wanted to hang out with was you."

"Well," He says. "It would be nice to have some fishing buddies."

"Can we join in?" Annie asks.

"Sure..." Grunkle Mitch shrugs. "The more the merrier, right?"

"Right," Says Finnick.

We spend the rest of the day on the boat fishing, laughing, and making memories. I even use our last camera to capture some of these moments. It's one of the first days I start to feel at home in this weird little town. I might not have been able to find a real Gobblewonker today, but there's a thousand other strange and mysterious things about this town. And I'm going to be the one to discover them.

 **I'm sorry Peeta has been out of character so far, but he has been having a difficult time adjusting to staying in this new town for the summer. At the end of this chapter, he starts to feel more comfortable around his Great Uncle so he should start acting more like himself. I hope you guys like this story so far. Old Man Latier was really fun to write... I'll post the next chapter sooner if I get some reviews.**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Headhunters

I stare at the cover of the journal while Delly watches Ducktective – a show about a duck who solves mysteries – something I've been wanting to do ever since I found the journal in the woods. We haven't ran into anything supernatural since the Gobblewonker last week, and that turned out to be a giant robot, so I don't think it counts. I just want something interesting to happen.

"Hey dudes," I hear Finnick call from another room. "Come check it out I found some sort of secret door." Delly shares a look with me and then we run to find Finnick in the hallway holding a door open. A door that didn't exist before. My mind comes up with thousands of possibilities for what could be behind this door. Could Grunkle Mitch be hiding something? "I was cleaning up the wallpaper here and I found this hole in the wall." Finnick explains. "When I peeked in through the hole I realized it was some kind of hidden room, that's when I found this doorknob on the floor." He motions to it. "And it opened the door."

"What's in there?" Delly voices my questions, as I walk in turning the lights on. As it turns out the room is filled with life size wax figures of historical and famous people. Not exactly what I thought would be in the room... But still really creepy. "They're so lifelike."

I look around at the sculptures and point to one." Except that one,"

"Hey," The sculpture says walking into the light, revealing that it's not a sculpture at all, it's Grunkle Mitch.

What is this place?" I ask him.

"Oh, the Mystery Shack used to have a wax figure section." He shrugs. "Oh no!" He runs over to a puddle of melted wax. "Wax Abraham Lincoln is melted!" He closes the blinds on a window. "I blame you wax John Wilkes Booth,"

"You know," Delly says. "I could probably make you another wax figure out of all this old wax."

"You think?" Grunkle Mitch says. "Why not?"

Delly spends the rest of the day planning her wax figure. When she finishes, she asks my opinion of it.

"It's a princess, unicorn, and fairy combined into one." Delly explains her drawing. My parents always say that I'm the artist of the family, but Delly's stick figures get the job done. I wonder how well she'll do on this clay sculpture, it's more my thing, but I need to support my sister's idea regardless of Delly's limited talent at art.

"It's nice," I say. "But why don't you make something more... realistic?"

"Like a waffle with big arms?"

"How about... someone that inspires you?"

"Inspires me?" Delly asks as Grunkle Mitch walks in. "I think I have an idea." She kicks us out of the room so she can get to work. Over the the next few days, Delly is really passionate about this project, she's putting a lot of work into her sculpture, I think she'll do a great job. Finally she finishes the sculpture – a life size replica of Grunkle Mitch. She actually did a really good job on it. It looks just like him... well if he was covered in glitter, it would look just like him. We put a blanket over it so she can present it to our Grunkle. "I present to you-" She rips the blanket off. "You!"

Grunke Mitch jumps back and screams. When he finally calms down he looks back up at the sculpture and admires it. "You startled me," He says. "But wow! It really does look just like me."

"Do you like it?" Delly questions.

"Yeah," He says. "In fact, it would be a shame if nobody got to see it, I say we reopen the wax museum. Wax Mitch will be the crown jewel."

We throw a reopening party. Grunkle Mitch made me put fliers up around town, I think he makes me do this because he knows it's the one chore I truly hate. I don't even know why I hate it so much, I just do. But I do as I'm told without complaining. I work the ticket stand with Katniss. "I can't believe anyone showed up," She sighs.

"The fliers say there will be free pizza."

"He doesn't have pizza, does he?"

"No, my Grunkle is a cheap skate."

Katniss smirks and turns her attention to selling a ticket to an older woman who can only keep one eye open.

Once the seats that have been placed around our porch of the Mystery Shack are full, we close the ticket stand and watch Grunkle Mitch address the crowed. He has a blanket over Wax Mitch. I'd like to thank you all to the reopening of our wax museum!" Old Man Latier raises his hand. "Ahh... Yes?"

"I'm Old Man Latier, local kook." He says. "I have some questions. Are the wax figures alive? And... follow up question, can I survive the wax man uprising?"

"Ahh... No," Grunke Mitch frowns.

"Next question."

One man raises his hand, steps forward with a turkey leg and uses it as a microphone. "I'm Gloss, from the local newspaper." He says. "Your flier calls this wax museum a 'wonder of the world', I hardly think you would be able to call it th-"

"Your mic is a turkey leg, Gloss." Mitch says. "Next question."

"Effie Trinket," A blonde woman with brightly colored clothes on. "I'm a real reporter," I notice a camera crew in front of her. She must be a TV reporter, I conclude. "Mitchell, your fliers say free pizza would be provided to everyone attending this event."

"Where's the pizza?" One man wearing a shirt that reads 'pizza is my bae' and has a picture of a pizza on it, shouts.

"Ahh..." Mitch says. "That was a typo," The crowd starts to get rowdy hearing this. "Take the money and run inside, kids!" He shouts at me and Katniss. She grabs the box holding the money and we run toward the Mystery Shack.

"My dad's gonna be so mad at me," She says as we run.

"What?" I ask. "Why?"

"He's in the crowed," She motions to a buff lumberjack currently snapping one of the chairs in half over his knee.

"He looks mad," I observe.

"Yeah," Katniss says, jumping over a knocked over chair. "It's a good thing I'm daddy's little girl."

We get into the Mystery Shack and find Grunkle Mitch, Delly and Finnick.

"It's getting pretty intense out there," Finnick says. "Are you dudes okay?"

"And more importantly, did you get all the money?" Mitch asks.

"Yes, and yes." Katniss hands him the box of money. "Why do your events always end in crazy riots?"

"I think the townspeople enjoy it, anyway," He shrugs and starts counting the money.

Later that day, after the riot settles down, Finnick and Katniss are able to go home. Delly and I begin to set up a mini miniature golf course in our room in the attic, while Grunkle Mitch watches TV in the living room. We finish making the first hole when we hear our Grunkle scram. I look at Delly. Something must be really wrong because I don't think Grunkle Mitch is the type of person to scream like that. We run down stairs and find him standing next to a beheaded Wax Mitch.

"What... What happened?" Delly asks.

"Wax Mitch... has been... murdered!" Haymitch says. "I'm calling the cops." He goes to the home phone and dials 911, while I check out the crime scene. Then, the cops show up – Sheriff Flickerman and Deputy Templesmith. They are the dumbest pair of law enforcers I've ever met. Just five minutes after showing up they give up on the case and call it 'unsolvable' and leave. That's when Delly starts crying. She worked days on this sculpture, and somebody snuck into our house and beheaded it! What kind of a jerk does that? I decide to take on the case, and Delly decides to help me.

"Okay," I tell Delly. "It could be months before we find our first clue, let's-"

"Hey, look!" Delly points to the ground. "Footprints."

I look to the ground and find the footprints. I notice there is a hole in the footprints. As if the murderer has a hole in the bottom of their shoes. We follow the footprints – leading behind the sofa – and find an ax. "This must be the murder weapon."

The next day, we tell Finnick about the murder of Wax Mitch, show him the ax, and ask him if he knows anyone who uses an ax.

"Well," Finnick says. "I know that Sage Everdeen uses an ax... He's a lumberjack."

"He was really angry at the riot yesterday." I consider the probability of Sage beheading Wax Mitch.

"Angry enough for murder!" Delly shouts.

"Where can we find him?" I ask Finnick.

"He hangs out at this biker joint... I don't know if you dudes should go, it can get... intense there."

"We can handle ourselves,"I say.

"Maybe I should go with you, just to be safe."

"I don't see why not," Delly shrugs.

Delly makes fake I. D.s for us and we walk over. I'm surprised when the bouncer actually accepts the I. D.s and lets us in.

"This is soo cool," Finnick laughs. "Mystery twins on the case,"

Did he really just call us the 'mystery twins'? I really hope people don't start calling us that. That would be really embarrassing. I laugh. "Never call us that again, Finnick."

"I don't know," Delly says. "I kind of like it."

"You really want people to start calling us the 'mystery twins'?"

"I think it's cute,"

"I don't." I search the room for Sage and find him sitting at a table at the edge of a room. I approach him carefully. "Are... are you Sage Everdeen?"

"Yeah, what's it to you, kid?" He looks at me. "Wait, what are you doing in here, how did you get past the bouncer?"

"Ahh... My sister made fake I.D.s," I explain. "Anyway, I'm searching for the murderer of Wax Mitch-"

He laughs. "Somebody actually destroyed that sculpture?"

"Yeah," I say. "My sister worked days making it, she's very upset that somebody would do that. I need to know where you were at eleven o'clock last night,"

"You think I did it?"

"You seemed pretty angry at the riot, yesterday,"

"Fair enough," He shrugs. "But I didn't do it, I was punching the clock."

"You were at work?" I question.

"No, I was punching that clock," He points out the window to a clock that's stuck at eleven o'clock. The time of the murder. Okay, so he has an alibi, but maybe he can tell me about the ax.

"Alright,"I pull the ax out of my bag "But I need to know, does this belong to you?"

"No," He shakes his head. "I wouldn't pick my teeth with that ax."

"Why not?" I look at the ax and then back at him.

"It's a left handed ax, I'm right handed."

"Okay," I stand up. "Thank you for speaking with me."

"No problem, I guess." He shrugs. "Now get out of here before you get caught."

I grab Delly who was talking to a biker, and drag her out of the bar, Finnick follows us close behind.

"What did you find out," Delly asks when we get to the Mystery Shack parking lot.

"Sage didn't do it," I say. "This is a left handed ax, and he uses his right hand."

"Okay," Finnick says. "Then all you need to do is find out whether or not your suspects are left handed, and if they aren't, they didn't do it."

"That's a great idea," We split up, each testing suspects to see what hand they use. We wave, throw balls, and get them to write the signature until the list is narrowed down to one suspect. Gloss.

We call the cops, and go with them to arrest him. Finnick stays behind to help our Grunkle out. Deputy Templesmith breaks the door down. Gloss jumps out away from his desk. "What's going on? Is there a problem officer?"

"Gloss," Sheriff Flickerman says. "You're under arrest for the murder of Wax Mitch,"

"What? But I didn't kill anyone!"

"The evidence is irrefutable."

"It's so irrefutable," Delly chimes in.

"All the evidence points to you." I say. "It's no secret the newspaper isn't doing so well these days. You thought the grand reopening of the Wax Museum would give the paper some hype. But when the event failed, you decided to make your own headline."

Delly bursts out laughing. "Head... line! It's funny because Wax Mitch lost his head!"

Gloss stares at me for a moment. "Well," He says. "Your little knees must be sore... from jumping to conclusions." He slaps his knee. "I was here working on the paper all night,"

"If that's true," Sheriff Flickerman says. "Then let's see the security cameras."

"Ahh." Gloss looks around. "I don't' know..."

"Unless you really are the murderer,"

"Okay..." Gloss shows us the footage from last night. Gloss was indeed here at the time of the murder... here kissing a cardboard cutout of news reporter Effie Trinket... I really wish I could unsee that...

"Alright," Sheriff Flickerman says. "It looks like your innocent... You freak of nature."

"But I wanted to arrest someone," Deputy Templesmith complains.

"Maybe next time," Sheriff Flickerman pats his back. "Maybe next time,"

"But," I start. "But I've considered everything – the weapon, the motive... Can you check this ax for fingerprints?"

I hand the sheriff the ax and wait while he checks. "No fingerprints," He shakes his head. "Maybe you should leave the detective work to us, kid."

Delly and I go home to find Grunkle Mitch has set up a funeral in the Wax Museum for his wax lookalike. Wax Mitch lays in a coffin, and the other figures are propped up against chairs, around the room. Our Grunkle sits with Finnick Annie, and Katniss.

"You made it!" Mitch says when he notices us. "I'm glad you all could come to mourn the death of... a true friend." He sniffles.

"With all due respect, sir," Katniss says. "That's a wax figurine, not a real person."

"Whatever," He rolls his eyes, and I smirk as he stands up walking to the center of the room. He waits for me and Delly to sit down before he starts. "Wax Mitch was a great man, he watched TV with me, he..." His eyes start to water. "I'm sorry... I was too lazy to write a proper eulogy..." He looks at the beheaded figure. "Keep pick-pocketing pockets in the afterlife, you cheap skate," He runs out of the room, in tears.

Delly approaches the open coffin and takes Wax Mitch's hand. "I can't believe somebody would do this," She says. "I worked so hard on it,"

"I thought for sure it was Gloss." I walk to her side. "Maybe I'm not very good at solving mysteries,"

Katniss walks over. "Delly, why does Wax Mitch have a hole in his shoe?" I furrow my eyebrows and move to where I can see the bottom of his shoe.

"Oh," Delly says. "All wax figures have a hole in the foot, so the stands can hold them up."

My head starts reeling from this new information. Wax figures have holes in the bottom of their shoes. We found footprints with a hole in the shoe. The murder weapon didn't have any fingerprints. Wax figures don't have fingerprints.

"Guys," I whispered, motioning for Finnick to join us. "I think the murderers are-"

"Standing in this very room?" And unfamiliar British voice says from behind us. We whip around to find Wax Sherlock Holmes – and all the other wax figures have come to life. "I'm surprised you were able to solve this... unsolvable crime,"

"Are you magic?" Delly asks.

"Magic?" Wax Sherlock Holmes says. "We are cursed. Cursed to come to life whenever the moon is waxing."

"Why did you kill Wax Mitch?" Delly questions.

He sighs. "Several years ago, your uncle purchased us at a garage sell."

"A haunted garage sell," Wax Kanye West interrupts.

Wax Sherlock Holmes glares at Wax Kanye the continues. "He opened up the wax museum. We lived a charmed life. True, by day we were playthings, but we ruled the night."

"Until your grunkle closed up shop!" Wax Kanye shouts.

"Bloody hell, Kanye! I was going to says that!" Wax Sherlock Holmes yells. "Quit interrupting me!"

Wax Kanye crosses his arms. "Whatever,"

"When your uncle closed the wax museum, he trapped us in here. We've spent years planning our revenge. But when the time came, we got the wrong Mitch."

"You were trying to kill the real Mitch?" I ask, baking away from the figures.

"Yes, and now that you all know our little secret, I'm afraid we'll have to kill you." Wax Sherlock Holmes rips the ax out of my hand. We back away from the wax figures and toward a window covered by a curtain, Delly rips the curtain off. The wax figures cry out in pain. I realize what we need to do. I hand lit candles out to everyone.

"Melt the wax figures!" I shout and stab Wax Sherlock Holmes with the candle. He cries out, dropping the ax, I reach down and take it, slicing him in half at the waist.

I look over and see Delly confronting Wax John Wilkes Booth. "Were you really the one who killed Wax Abraham Lincoln?"  
"Yes,"

She slices him with the flame of the candle. "Lincoln is my favorite president!"

Katniss kills Wax Shakespeare, Finnick kills Wax Michael Jackson. Delly beheads Wax Kanye West. We kill wax figures left and right until all that's left are decapitated wax body parts. Then we start throwing pieces into the fireplace. Strange enough, we don't find Wax Kanye's head.

I just wish I could tell the cops I cracked the case. I shouldn't do it though – they'd never believe me. Nobody would.

"Looks like the mystery twins have solved the 'unsolvable crime'." Finnick says.

I laugh. "I still don't want to be called the 'mystery twins'." I tell him.

"But I kind of like it," Delly says.

 **Okay, so I didn't get any reviews for chapter two, so that's why I took longer to post this. I hope you guys like this story, I don't really know what you think of it due to lack of reviews. So please review, they make my day, and encourage me to get chapters out quicker.**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The Psychic Child

(Delly's POV)

The next day, Finnick, Katniss, and I watch Ducktective, while Peeta re-reads some boring thing in his journal. When it cuts to commercial some weird ad comes on. "Dude," Katniss nudges Peeta. "You've gotta see this commercial,"

He looks up at the TV screen. "Are you having a bad day?" The TV voice says. "Well then you need to see Cato," I look at Peeta. "Cato," Another voice on the TV whispers. "Come on down to the Tent of Telepathy," The TV says. "Tent of Telepathy." It whispers.

"Maybe we should check it out," I say.

"No dice," Grunkle Mitch barges into the room. "Ever scence Cato came to town I've had nothing but trouble. As long as I'm in charge, you aren't to step foot under his roof." He leaves.

"Do tents have roofs?" Katniss asks.

Peeta grins. "I think we just found our loophole."

We go to the Tent of Telepathy and wait for the show to start. A voice announces 'lil Cato', and a blonde, chubby little boy jumps out from behind the curtain. I'm guessing he's around eight or nine years old.

"Good evening everybody!" He shouts. "I'm lil Cato, I'll let you all in on a little secret," He pauses. "I'm a psychic." The crowd gasps. "It's true! In fact, I predict all of you will say aww in a few seconds," He turns his back around making a cute face. As predicted the crowd says aww. Then he bursts into a little song and dance.

" _Oh, I can see, what others can't see._

 _It ain't some sideshow trick,_

 _It's innate ability._

 _Where others are blind, I am futurely inclined._

 _And you too could see if you was widdle o'l me."_

"Come on, everybody, rise up. I want y'all to keep it going!" He shouts and everybody in the crowed – including Finnick, Peeta, and myself – stand up.

" _You wish your son would call you more,"_

Cato point to a little old lady who brought her cats to the show.

" _I sense that you've been here before."_

He points to Sheriff Flickerman who is wearing lil Cato merchandise.

" _You think your husband is too smelly,"_

He sings to the goat man and his wife.

" _Something tells me you're names Delly,"_

He points to me, and my jaw drops. How did he know my name? I look at Peeta who rolls his eyes at me. "You're sweater has your name on it," He tells me. I look down and frown. It does. This Cato is a fraud. He claims to be a psychic but he is just pointing out obvious information. I mean everybody thinks the goat man stinks. I turn my attention back to the performance.

" _So welcome all ye..._

 _To the Tent of Telepathy._

 _And thanks for visiting..._

 _Widdle Ol' me."_

Cato pulls out a water bottle and chugs the whole thing. "Thanks for coming, y'all, you guys are the real gift."

I want to get a souvenir, but Peeta drags me home before I can. "Man," Katniss laughs when we get back to the Mystery Shack. "That kid is such a phoney."

"I know!" Peeta exclaims. "He was just pointing out obvious things! He's an even bigger fraud then Grunkle Mitch,"

I shrug. "He's just a kid. There's no way he'll be able to make money off of this 'ability' when he's older."

"Yeah," Finnick says. "They must only go to his shows because he's a cute little kid,"

The doorbell rings and I run to get it. I find Cato on the porch. "Ahh... Cato," I say. "What brings you here?"

"I noticed you at the show today," He says. "And I realized I haven't seen you around town before. Are you new to town,"

"Yes," I nod. "Me and my brother, Peeta are spending the summer with our Great Uncle." I gesture toward the shack.

"I see, well, welcome to Panem Falls, I'm sure you'll have a great lil summer here."

"Thank you." I smile briefly. "Can I ask you something kind of... personal?"

"Why, of course!" He grins.

"Okay... Well, why are you pretending to be psychic?"

"What do you mean?" He frowns.

"Well... At the show today you were just saying obvious things," I say. "See, my sweater has my name on it."

"Oh..." He looks at the ground. "I can't really see the future." He looks back at me and adds. "But I have a friend who can."

"You do?" I ask. "When can I meet your friend?"

"Oh, you'll meet him later on this summer. It's not time yet."

"How will I know who he is?"

"His name is Bill. He's got some exciting plans, but, as I said before, it's not time yet."

"Oh, okay." I wonder what these plans are, and who Bill is. But it's Peeta's think to ask questions like this, and I shrug them away.

"Anyway," Cato says. "I may not be psychic, but I can do magic." He snaps and a white rose appears in his hand. He gives it to me. "I wanted to know if you'd like to go to dinner with me."

"As friends?"

"No."

"Cato, I-" He cuts me off.

"At least give me a chance, Delly."

"I don't know..." I look away.

"Please,"

Cato does seem really sweet. And he's younger, I don't want to break his lil heart... Then again, I really don't want to go on a date with him. "Fine," I finally agree. "But only one date."

With that, Cato leaves, promising to meet me at some restaurant. I sigh and go inside, Peeta looks at me. "Who was that?" He asks.

"Cato," I flop onto the sofa next to Peeta who starts playing with my blonde curls.

"Well... What did he want?"

"He... He wanted to ask me out to dinner tonight." I blurt out.

Peeta laughs. "Aww... How'd you turn him down?"

"I... didn't."

"What? Why?"

"I couldn't." I tell him. "I felt too bad."

"Well," Says Peeta. "You should probably get ready for your date." He mocks me.

"Yeah... I just want to get tonight over with." I go upstairs and search through my closet. I don't want to give Cato the wrong idea. I am not going to be his little girlfriend. He's nine years old, and I'm twelve. He should know that this could never work out. But I also don't want to be too mean and break his heart. I have to think of the right way to tell him I'm not going to go on a second date if he asks me to do so. I put on a sweater, a skirt, and my shoes. Sighing I go to the mirror and brush my hair. I hope this works...

I leave the Mystery Shack and find the restaurant. Cato is already waiting there at a table set for two. I laugh and walk over to him. "Cato, funny seeing you here," I joke.

He smiles. "You made it."

"Yep." I sit down. This restaurant is too fancy. "How can you afford this?"

"My business is quite popular in town, and great for tourists... Like your Great Uncle's Mystery Shack."

"Oh,"

"You look lovely."

I look down at my outfit. "Thank you... So do you- I mean... not lovely, but-"

"I get it." He interrupts. "Thank you." I look at his tuxedo. He really is going all out with this date. I really hope he doesn't ask me out on another.

We order our food, talk, and eat, but at the end of the night, when I go to leave, he asks me out on another date. I don't know why but I agree. Which makes me very angry with myself. Why am I too nice? It's not fair. I go home and tell Peeta everything.

"Delly," He sighs. "If you don't want to date him why do you keep agreeing?"

"I don't know!" I cry. "I just don't want to hurt his feelings, I guess."

"Do you want me to go find him tomorrow and tell him you don't want to date him anymore?" Peeta asks.

I perk up. "You'd do that for me?"

"Yeah." He says. "You're my twin sister, I'll always have your back."

"Thanks bro bro... Awkward sibling hug?"

His mouth twitches up. "Awkward sibling hug."

We hug each other, and it's quite awkward. "Pat pat," We both say as we pat each other on the back.

The next day, I sit in the Mystery Shack while Peeta talks to Cato. I feel really bad, I wish I could talk to Cato myself but I just can't. I watch as Katniss comes in for work. She sits down by the cash register then eyes me. "What's wrong?"

I sigh and pull a stool over to Katniss. "Well," I say. "Do you remember Cato?"

"Yeah," She smiles. "We went to the Tent of Telepathy yesterday, remember?"

"After that, Cato came over and asked me out."

Katniss laughs. "He's nine! You don't have to date him,"

"I agreed to go only once – because I didn't want to hurt his feelings,"

"Delly," Katniss sighs. "Cato is a nine year old. Just tell him there's too much of an age difference. Just be nice when you do it,"

Katniss is right. I might be sparing Cato's feelings, but I'm not being any fair to myself. I want to find someone closer to my own age. Ii don't' want to be stuck pretending to me Cato's girlfriend all summer. "You're right," I say standing up.

"Course I am," She says.

"I've got to go," I run out of the Mystery Shack to the park I was supposed to meet Cato at. There, I find my brother levitated in the air by some magical green clouds coming out of Cato's hands.

"This is all your fault!" Cato shouts at my brother. "You came between us, and now you're gonna pay!"

"Cato!" I shout back.

"Delly, I-" He says with his back still turned to me.

"I'm sorry I should've told you this in person, but I think I'm just too old for you," I say. "I didn't want to hurt your feelings I still want to be your friend." I move closer to him and he turns to face me.

"Really?" I notice he is wearing a glowing amulet. That must be his magic is coming from. If I could get it off him he can't hurt us.

"No, not really!" I rip the amulet off his neck and Peeta falls to the floor. "You were gonna hurt my brother!"

"Delly, please give it back!" He pleads. "I won't hurt your brother, just please."

I don't give the amulet back. Cato was going to use it to hurt my brother, he could use it to hurt anyone. I have to do the right thing and make sure Cato can't do anything bad with the amulet. I drop the amulet and crush it under my foot.

"Delly, you have no idea what you just cost me," Cato says.

Peeta moves to stand by my side. "You aren't much of a threat without your powers, are you?"

Cato glares at Peeta. "I'm gonna make your whole family pay." He looks at me. "You remember my friend Bill?" He asks. "Well, he is more powerful than either of you could ever imagine. And he's gonna help me... When the time is right. And then we can be together, Delly."

I raise one eyebrow at him. "I will never date you," I say.

A flash of pain crosses his face then he smirks at us. "Fine," He says. He walks toward the forest, then turns around to say "But this isn't' the last you'll see of widdle ol me." With that he disappears into the woods, and I look at Peeta.

"Psychic child?" I ask. "More like psychotic child."

He smirks and we walk back to the Mystery Shack together.

 **Cato's POV**

I stare at the model of the Mystery Shack I made out of Popsicle sticks. "Okay," I try to calm myself down. "You're okay. They'll see. They'll see who they're dealing with. They think they took all my power. But they're wrong. I pull out the journal I found one lonely day in the woods. It's cover has a golden six fingered hand with the number '2' written on it. Inside it lies the secrets to Panem Falls. Secrets to Panem Falls. Secrets that will help me destroy the Mellarks.

 **I hope you guys liked this chapter. It was weird for me to write Cato as a crazy nine year old, but I think it's really funny, I'm sorry if your a fan of Cato and didn't find it amusing... Anyway, tell me what your thinking of this story so far, I don't really know how any of you feel about this story because you aren't reviewing, should I continue?**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The Inconveniencing

(Peeta's POV)

When we get home from dealing with Cato our Grunkle makes us work. At least Katniss' shift isn't over yet. She's always fun to be around. I watch as she laughs at something Delly said. Katniss is really pretty. "Random dance party for no reason!" Delly announces and they both start dancing. I pull my mini notebook out of my pocket and start writing so Katniss doesn't notice that I'm watching her. _'I am pretending to write things down.'_ I stare at the newly written worlds on my notebook and nod my head slowly as if considering something.

Katniss looks at me. "Why aren't you dancing?"

"I... don't dance," I shrug.

"Yeah you do!" Delly says. "When we were little, our mother used to make him do the 'lamby lamby dance'."

I glare at Delly. "No I didn't-"

"The lamby lamby dance!" Katniss exclaims. "Come on, now you've got to show me!"

"No I don't," I say. "And anyway, I... don't have a lamb costume."

"But-"

Grunkle Mitch walks in. "Kids I'm going out, watch the shack, will you?"

"Sure," I say, happy that this conversation was interrupted, and then our Grunkle leaves.

A few minutes after he leaves, Katniss closes up the Mystery Shack. "Come on," She says motioning for us to follow her. She leads us outside and to a ladder that goes to the roof. We sit and throw pine cones at a target she set up. "I come up here sometimes when I'm supposed to be working, just for a few minutes. Sometimes I just have to get away."

"Do you like your job?" Delly asks.

"No." She laughs. "But... my family is going through tough times... My dad got laid off so my brothers and I are just... doing odd jobs around town, trying to help him out until he can get a new job, you know."

"Yeah," I say picking up a pine cone and tossing it toward the target. But it doesn't hit my target, it hits a car, breaking the front window and starting the car alarm. I look at Katniss with panic and she laughs.

"Dude, you get bonus points for that, high five!" She holds her hand up to give me a high five and I look at her as the wind flows through her loose hair. She usually has her hair braided, and wears a beanie, but not today. I like her hair braided – but she looks nice with her hair down, too. She looks really pretty. And she's so nice, and cool. And she has a cool bird pinned to her shirt. Her voice is the most calming voice I've ever heard. Also she's pretty. I'm pulled away from my thoughts when I realize she's looking at me funny, and Delly is staring at me with a stupid grin on her face. "Come on," She says. "Don't leave me hanging," I remember that she's trying to give me a high five, and quickly return it. She smiles at me as someone pulls into the Mystery Shack parking lot. "That's my friends, we're going on a big adventure tonight,"

"Could we come to?" Delly asks.

"I don't know..." Katniss frowns. "It's kind of a teenager thing..."

"We are thirteen," I lie. "Technically teenagers,"

"Okay, okay," She smiles. "Let's go," We head down stairs and Katniss introduces us to her friends. There's four boys and one girl, besides Katniss. Pollux, Darius, Messala, Gale, and Zoe.

Pollux is a generally quiet guy with long blond hair that he keeps tied back out of his face. Darius is a redheaded man and is always joking around. Messala has darker skin and a few facial piercings, and is a pretty friendly guy from what I've seen so far. Zoe is a brunette who says some pretty funny things when... when she isn't on her phone, that is. And then there is Gale Hawthorne... He has dark hair and gray eyes, like Katniss, but they are very different in personality, when I look at him the words emo teenager come to mind...

Gale looks at me. "I'm the one who spray painted the water tower."

"Oh!" I say. "You mean you did the giant muffin?"

Gale glares at me. "It's supposed to be an explosion,"

His friends laugh. "Dude, it kind of does look like a muffin," Darius says.

We get in the car and the teens make me and Delly sit in the back seat. But that's okay. I look out the window until we arrive at our destination.

"Here we are," Katniss says. "The run down Dusk til Dawn." It's an old grocery store.

"Didn't this place get closed down after that family died in there?" Messala asks.

"That's what the rumors say," Darius says. "Why? Are you scared?"

"No." Messala says defensively. "I was just worried about the girls getting too scared... That's all."

"Yeah right," Katniss says. "I'm the one we suggested we come here, remember. I ain't afraid of no ghost."

"Oh, so now you're a ghostbuster?" Gale says teasingly.

"Sure," Katniss shrugs. "Let's go in." Katniss waves us over to the fence surrounding the property and starts to climb it. We follow her over to the fence. I watched her as Gale tires to open the door.

"It's locked," He shrugs.

"Let me try," I say.

"Kid, it's locked, if I can't get in what makes you think you can?" The teens laugh at me.

"Guys, don't be so hard on him," Katniss says. "He's just a kid,"

So this is how Katniss sees me? As some weak kid who tagged along? I clench my fists. I May not really be a teenager, but I'm not weak. I march over to the building, climb onto the garbage and onto the roof.

"Wow, Peeta," Katniss says. "You don't have to do this,"

"Peeta," Delly calls. "You'll get hurt!"

I climb into the air vent and get into the store. I grin and open the front door, letting everyone in.

"Wow, good job, kid," Darius says once everyone's in. "That was awesome!"

Someone turns on the lights and we look away. Delly notices a Smile Dip display and runs to it. "I thought this stuff was banned in the US!"

"Maybe it was banned for a reason," I say.

She shrugs and tears a package open. "Guess we'll find out, won't we." This won't end well. Smile Dip is a knock off brand of Fun Dip that was banned in several countries for giving the consumer strange hallucinations. But I don't want to act like a buzz kill. So I join the other teens who are putting mentos in soda. I smile as it sprays all over Gale.

Something feels really wrong here. The sun has set and it's dark outside. A breeze makes my skin goosebumps. I run my hands up and down my arms to try to warm up. I can't shake the feeling of uneasiness. It feels like somebody else is here. Right behind me. I turn around and see two crime scene silhouettes. I jump away from them. This must be the people who died here.

"Guys," I shout. "Check this out!" They join me and stare at the silhouettes in shock.

"Here," Messala says. "Take a picture of me laying there in the silhouette."

"Maybe you shouldn't," I say. "I mean, just in case this place really is... haunted." The teens stare at me with unimpressed looks on their faces.

"See guys, this is what happens when you let a nine year old tag along," Gale says.

Anger boils through me. I really don't like Gale. "I am not nine, okay?" I say. "I'm thirteen." I throw myself back onto the silhouette. "Technically a teenager." The silhouette around me starts glowing. I jump out up off of the ground. A strong wind blows into the room from nowhere. "What... what is that?"

"It's the tooth fairy, kid." Gale rolls his eyes. Suddenly he vanishes and appears on a surveillance screen. "What the..."

Zoe pulls out her phone when she disappears too, and appears on the screen next to Gale. Pollux, Messala, and Darius get into an argument, when they disappear as well. Katniss grabs my arm and runs, pulling me toward a cabinet.

"Come on, we'll hide in here," She says and pulls me with her. "Do you think the ghosts are doing all this?"

"You believe in ghosts too?" I blink at her in shock.

"Well yeah," She says. "With all that's going on out there how could I not at least consider the possibility of ghosts?" She smirks. "And anyway, I was attacked by living wax figures just this week. This town is full of weird paranormal stuff. That's why I suggested we go here today. My friends could hang out while I went on a ghost chase." I smile at her. She's not that different from me. We both enjoy seeking the paranormal. I really like Katniss. "But now my friends are stuck in that screen, and your sister is out there hallucination from that Smile Dip stuff."

"It's okay, we'll fix everything."

She meets my eyes and sniffs. "You really think we can fix all this?"

"Yeah. So far this summer I've beat a bunch of gnomes, a gobblewonker, some wax figures, and a psychotic nine year old. What's a few ghosts?"

She laughs. "A psychotic nine year old?"

"Cato attacked us after Delly told him she didn't like him. He had this magic amulet... But Delly broke it, he's not much of a threat anymore. And I have this," I pull the journal out of my jacket. "I found it in the woods, it tells me how to defeat creatures."

"What does it say about ghosts?"

I turn the pages and find what I'm looking for. "It says to make the ghost go away, I need to find out why it's here in the first place. I need to find out what's angering the ghosts... What were your friends doing when the ghosts took them?"

"Um... Let's see, Gale was being sarcastic, Zoe pulled out her phone, the others were arguing..." Katniss says. "I don't understand, they were just doing normal teenage things," Something clicks in my head.

"Say that last part again,"

"Normal teenage things?"

"Katniss, that's it!" I exclaim. "Wait here, I'm going to talk to the ghosts."

"What?"

"They won't hurt me," I say then walk out of the cabinet. "Hey ghosts!" I shout. "You don't have to hide from me, I'm only twelve... technically not a teen."

The wind stops and two ghostly elder figures appear. "Oh, why didn't you say?" The old man asks. I look at the other ghost, an old lady.

"Why... why don't you like teenagers?" I ask.

"You see, sonny," The old lady says. "Back when we were alive, we ran this very store. But teenagers used to hang out in the parking lot and would cause a ruckus inside the store,"

"One day, I had enough of their shenanigans and confronted them outside," The man says. "They left... Or so I thought, they snuck into the store to prank scare us, and we were so startled that we both had heart attacks and died."

"That's why we hate teenagers," The old lady explains.

"Well, those are my friends," I plead.

"They weren't acting like your friends, they were teasing you."

"Well, yeah. But that's just how teenagers are... They are going through an awkward, stressful time in their lives." I say. "You guys were teenagers once... A long... long time ago, don't you remember how it was?"

"Tell you what, we'll let you're friends go under one condition," The old man says.

"I'll do anything,"

"Do you know any songs and dance numbers?" The old lady asks me and my heart sinks.

Crap. "Well, I do know... the lamby lamby dance." I say. "But, I don't have a lamb costume, so..." I trail off I really hope they don't make me do this. Especially not in front of Katniss who is peeking out of the cabinet where I left her. But the ghost snaps his fingers and suddenly, I'm in a lamb costume. I have no choice really, so I take a deep breath and start my song.

" _Well... who wants a lamby, lamby, lamby?_

 _I do, I do!_

 _So go greet your mammy, mammy, mammy._

 _Hi there, hi there!_

 _Just prance, prance, prance around the daisies._

 _Don't, don't, don't you forget about the baby...!"_

I end the song in my finishing pose. And take deep breaths. I really hope the group can't see me through that screen! The ghosts smile and clap for me. I bow and then they snap their fingers and Katniss' friends are free. I look down and sigh in relief, I'm back in my normal clothes. Katniss climbs out of the cabinet.

"Guys, guys!" She exclaims. "You'll never guess what the ghosts made Peeta do!" I lock eyes with her and silently beg her not to tell them what really happened. She clears her throat and looks away from me. "Peeta... He just started beating them up!" She lies. "He was punching ghosts left and right! They ran away like a bunch of scared little girls," The teens look at me with impressed looks on their faces.

"Good job, man." Gale punches my shoulder a little too hard for my liking but at least he was giving me a compliment.

I rub my shoulder and look for my sister. I find Delly in a pile of Smile Dip, passed out on the floor. I pick her up and we leave the store. When they drop us off at the Mystery Shack parking lot, Katniss decides to help me carry Delly inside. She stops me on the porch.

"Hey, thanks for saving my friends from the ghosts. Especially after they teased you all night." She says.

"It was the right thing to do," I shrug. "I don't want anyone to be stuck on some security screen in a rundown grocery store for the rest of their lives."

"Well, thanks." She smiles. "That was really brave of you to face the ghosts... even if all they did was make you perform a cute little song and dance."

I laugh. "And thank you for not telling your friends about the lamby lamby dance."

She smirks. "I got a picture of your finishing pose, though." She pulls out her phone and shows me the picture. I look away out of embarrassment.

"Please don't show that to anyone."

She deletes the picture, and pretends to zip her lips, throwing away the key. "Our secret."

"Thanks."

She takes my hat off and ruffles my hair. "Maybe someday we can go hunt down the paranormal together."

"I'd like that." Then I turn, go inside, tuck Delly into bed and lay down with a grin I'm sure spreads across my entire face.

 **I hope you guys liked this chapter. If you haven't seen the lamby lamby dance from Gravity Falls you should really look that up... How did you feel about Gale? Tell me your thoughts in the reviews.**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Copy Machine

(Peeta's POV)

This morning, when I woke up I remembered that Grunkle Mitch asked us to watch the Mystery Shack while he went out. But we didn't obey him, we went with Katniss and her friends instead. He woke me up this morning asking to talk to me in private. He didn't seem angry, just... frustrated. He had been planning a party yesterday, that's why he left. He was going to invite the local youth so Delly and I could make friends, and so he can make money. (He's charging five dollars for tickets to get in, and ten dollars to leave early!)

But because Delly and I left yesterday, he threatened to make both of us work the ticket booth. I- being the good brother that I am- argued that Delly shouldn't have to work the ticket stand because it wasn't her idea to leave, she just followed along. I didn't want Delly to be punished for my mistakes. And I know she really wanted friends her age. Anyway, Grunkle Mitch is gonna make Katniss work the ticket stand with me, so... it's not the bad of a punishment for me. I'm perfectly content with only being friends with Finnick, Annie and Katniss. They are a good group of people.

Grunkle Mitch asked us to set up the decorations before the party today. Finnick and Annie are setting up a dance floor, while Katniss, Delly and I hang up streamers.

Delly grips her stomach as if she's feeling ill. "Oh," She grumbles. "I'm not feeling too good." She makes a barfing sound and sprays me with a can of silly string.

"Me either," I clutch my belly too, and spray her, making barf noises.

"Guys, guys," Katniss says, glaring at us. We both stare at her until her lips twist upward into a smile, and she sprays us with silly string.

"Okay, okay," Grunkle Mitch tries to calm us down. "Peeta, I need you to make some copies of this flyer. Copy machine is down the hall."

"Alright," I take the flyer and go down the hall in search of the copy machine. When I find it, I place the flyer down and press the button telling the machine to start copying the paper. I like that I can boss machinery around. _You copy these fliers. You wash these dishes._ It5's nice having something do what you tell it to do.

When the papers are done copying, I accidentally copy my arm, trying to gather all the new fliers. However, when the copy comes out, the image of my arm crawls off of the paper. I jump away from the arm and search for something to destroy this demon. I find a half empty can of soda and throw it at the arm. It disintegrates and I sigh in relief.

When I show the fliers to Grunkle Mitch, he smiles and hands them back to me. "Great job... Now I need you to hang them up around town,"

"But-" I start.

"No buts..." He interrupts me. "Unless you want Delly working the ticket stand with you tonight."

So I walk around town, hanging fliers. I'm pretty sure I'm the best brother in the whole world. Grunkle Mitch always makes me do things like this! I mean, I deserve it this time, but I didn't deserve it all those other times. He just likes to pick on me. When I finally hang the last flier up, I go back to the shack and find that everything has been set up. Somebody, taps my shoulder and I whirl around. Delly stands in front of me.

"Peeta," She says. "I wanted to thank you for asking Grunkle Mitch to let me go to the party."

"No problem," I shrug. "I'll be okay, I get to hang out with Katniss-" Delly gasps, takes my hand and drags me to our room. "Delly, what's-"

"You like her!"

I blink. "Yeah, I mean, she's pretty cool..."

"No." She rolls her eyes. "You like-like her!"

"Like-like?"

"Like-like is when you have a crush on somebody," She explains.

"I don't have a-"

"Don't deny it!" She cuts me off. "So... knowing you, you probably made some elaborate plan to win her over,"

I sigh. "Maybe," I pull out the list of steps I've been working on. Delly knows me too well.

"Let me see," She takes the list and skims over it. "Why don't you just talk to her like a normal person?"

"That's step ten," I point to number ten. "See, 'Talk to her like a normal person.'"

"You're over complicating things,"

When I get to the ticket stand, I find Katniss sitting with her legs propped up on the table reading a magazine. "What's the magazine about?" I ask walking closer.

She looks at me for a moment. "Hunting. My whole family is into outdoorsy stuff."

"Cool," I say. "So you hunt?"

"Yeah, usually with a bow and arrow."

"That's really cool..." I trail off and we fall into an awkward silence, Katniss finally looks back down at her magazine. I get more and more uncomfortable with every second that passes. We can't sit here in awkward silence the whole time! I have to do something. "So here's a random question for you," I say without thinking. She looks at me. Great! I don't even have a question to ask her. "Um, what's your favorite snack food?"

"OH, I don't know if I can pick just one..."

"Me too,"

She laughs and looks at her magazine again. I hold my face in my hand and consider my next move. Maybe she doesn't want to talk. Some people don't like talking all the time, and she seems like one of them. But then what if she just doesn't want to talk to me because I'm just some annoying kid to her?

"I found this at the beginning of last summer," She says holding the pin of a bird. I've noticed it before, she always wears it on her shirt or jacket.

"What kind of bird is that?" I ask her. I've never seen this species before.

"They're one of the paranormal creatures in town, well... sort of... it all started with the Jabber Jay," She explains. "Jabber Jays are paranormal birds that can replicate human voices. But these birds, Mockingjays, are a hybrid of the Jabber Jays and regular Mockingbirds. They can't copy voices but they can replicate melodies..."

"Like songs?"

"Yeah, I would sit out in my favorite meadow and sing songs to the Mockingjays and they would sing back."

"Have you seen a Jabber Jay before?"

"No. They're really rare nowadays... And anyway, they're really dangerous."

"Dangerous?"

"Yeah," She says. "Because they can copy human voices, they lead people deep into the woods. The people get lost, die, and then the Jabber Jays eat them."

"Oh," I say in surprise.

"When I was young, I got led into the woods by one."

"I thought you hadn't seen one,"

"Jabber Jays don't come out until you're dead, nobody that's seen one is alive today."

"How'd you get out of the woods?" I question.

"You've met my dad, right?" I remember her dad. Sage Everdeen, the man I questioned about the murder of Wax Mitch. "He's been training me and my brothers to survive in the woods... and also the apocalypse."

"That's why you have the magazine?"

"I'm looking for supplies. We're going hunting in a few weeks." She looks back at the magazine.

This is going well, I think, I'm getting to know her. But I still need help, someone who thinks like me. But where can I find someone like that? That's when I remember the copy machine I discovered today. It can reanimate objects. I'll make a copy of myself, and he'll help me win Katniss over. I turn to Katniss. "I'll be right back, I need to go to the bathroom."

"Okay," She takes some money from a teenager and hands them a ticket into the party.

I nod and run to the copy room. When I get there, I quickly make a copy of myself. I put a number 2 on it's hat. Then I tell him my plan, he's gonna watch me and try to figure out solutions to any problems that arise. I leave the copy room first and he's going to leave in a few minutes. When I get back to the ticket stand Katniss is talking to Gale. I sit down. This is a problem. As I wait for Peeta 2, I get impatient watching them interact. What if Gale and Katniss end up dating?

Peeta 2 finally arrives, he takes in the scene and motions for me to switch places with him. I pretend to to drop a pencil and Peeta 2 runs over ducking down, he picks the pencil up and sits in my place, then when the cost is clear, I run back to the copy room. I make two more copies of myself and instruct them to steal Gale's bike. The should get rid of Gale. I go back out to the ticket stand and Peeta 2 switches places with me again. After a few minutes Peeta 3 and 4 hop on Gale's bike and ride off.

"Gale," I say and he looks at me with a scowl.

"What?"

I point behind him. "Isn't that your bike?"

"Yeah, pretty sweet, huh?" He says without looking behind him. "Well, it's being stolen,"

Gale turns around just in time to see his bike disappear into the woods. "My bike!" He runs after it and Katniss chuckles.

"I didn't even notice them taking it." She says. "You think he'll get it back?"

"Maybe," I shrug. "It looked like an expensive bike,"

"He's been saving up for it since the beginning of the year."

"Wow, I hope he can get it back," I fake worry. Peeta 3 and 4 are going to drop it in the woods after a while. And if Gale still can't find it, I'll go out and look for it. I don't Gale, I just want to spend time with Katniss. I'll make sure he gets his bike back.

"Why did your parents name you Peeta?" Katniss asks.

"Ahh..." I try to decide whether or not I should tell her. This story is embarrassing, but I have to open up to her if I want her to open up to me. And anyway, she saw me do the lamby lamby dance, nothing could be more embarrassing then that. "I have this birthmark on my forehead... that's shaped like pita bread... And my dad is a baker, so..." I trail off awkwardly.

"No way," She laughs. "Show me the birthmark!" I take my hat off and move my hair to the side. Katniss snorts. "Wow that does look like pita bread... I thought your parents just hated you or something."

"My mom hates me," I shrug. "She loves Delly though," I admit. "I don't really feel like I have have a mom... She avoids me."

Katniss frowns. "My mom died a few years ago, so I know how you feel... My dad is pretty awesome though, he does his best to take care of me and my brothers," She ruffles my hair. "I need to go to the bathroom," I nod and watch her walk away.

Peeta 2 comes out of the bushes. "You showed her our birthmark!" He says. "That wasn't part of the plan."

"I know but-"

"If you can't follow the plan, then maybe you shouldn't be the Peeta that gets to talk to Katniss." Peeta 2 interrupts me.

I raise my eyebrows in surprise. "Come on, we can't turn on each other." I say. "We can't be like one of those cliche movies!"

"If you can't follow the plan, then you shouldn't be the one to talk to Katniss," Peeta 2 repeats himself.

I back away from him. "You don't really want to-"

"Yes I do!" He lunges himself at me, tackling me to the ground. Ok, I tell myself, time to put all those years of wrestling practice to use. I use a technique to flip Peeta 2 under me and pin him to the ground. Looking up at the ticket stand, I notice a water bottle next to Katniss' seat. Liquid disintegrated the copy of my arm earlier today. I grab it and twist the cap off, Peeta 2 notices the water. "Peeta wait!" I pour the water on Peeta 2 and he disintegrates before my eyes. I stand up.

"Hey, you stole my water," Katniss says walking out of the Mystery Shack.

"Ah... There was a wasp," I shrug.

"So... You threw water at it?"

"I... panicked..." I frown. "I'm really awkward."

Katniss chuckles. "Hey, I'm the Queen of Awkwardness," She pulls something out of her pocket. "Here's a picture of me and my family when I was your age." She hand it to me.

I recognize her father immediately. He looks exactly the same. Katniss isn't as recognizable, but she's the only girl in the picture. She has her hair in two braids instead of one. She has braces. And she's freakishly tall for her age. Three boys stand in between Katniss and her dad. They must be her brothers.

"Wow," I hand her the picture back. "You were a freak!" I cover my mouth when I realize what I've said.

She laughs. "I know, right!" She slaps my hat back on my head. "Pita bread,"

We sit back down and talk the whole night. When Grunkle Mitch finally lets everyone out of the party Delly has made two friends and one enemy. I wonder what exactly happened in that party...

 **Hey guys, I'm so sorry for the lack of updates. I wanted to post this chapter to tell you guys I haven't given up on this story. I'm going to finish writing it this month, and then I will be posting chapters regularly in November. Anyway, I hope you guys like this story, if you have seen Gravity Falls, you know that things will get a lot more exciting as the story progresses, so hang in there.**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The Time Traveler's Pig

(Peeta's POV)

The next week, our Grunkle wakes us up bright up what he calls 'The Mystery Fair'. Apparently he sets up a whole carnival in just a few hours. I don't trust the rides because he told me that he spared every expense on this event. The Mystery Fair is a lawsuit waiting to happen. Delly seems excited, though. She hops right on that rickety Ferris wheel. Hopefully she'll be alright...

I eavesdrop on Finnick and Grunkle Mitch's conversation. "How's the dunk tank coming along Finnick?" He asks.

"This baby is rigged left and right," Finnick says. "There's no way they'll be able to dunk you,"

"That's what I like to hear!" Mitch pats Finnick on the shoulder.

"I mean, it might dunk you if some kind of laser arm cannon was fired at it... But I don't think that would happen." Finnick taps his chin in thought.

"Hey," Grunkle Mitch says after a moment. "Have you seen my screwdriver? It's missing." I walk away from them and call Katniss, asking if she wants to come hang out at the fair. She agrees, and I wait for her to arrive.

When she gets here we walk around. We both agree not to go on any of the rides because we don't want to die. I'm surprised anyone is going on the rides. They can't really think some ride my Grunkle threw together at the last minute is safe. I think that this town is full of idiots. It only makes sense that Grunkle Mitch would live here, these people are too easy to con. I've noticed that the young people appear to be a lot more intelligent than the adults here in town. Finnick, Katniss, and Gale are like geniuses compared to Sheriff Flickerman, Deputy Templesmith, and Old Man Latier. It's almost like once you grow up, this town sucks the intelligence out of you. I make a mental note to try to figure out why the adults are so dumb.

When Katniss needs to go to the bathroom, I'm left to my thoughts. Delly still thinks I'm over complicating things, and I should just ask Katniss out. I know this is terrible idea. I'm twelve and she's fifteen. There's no way I'd have a chance with her if I didn't think things through completely. I'm afraid that if I try to do things too quickly, she'll get freaked out and won't want to be my friend. And as much as I want us to be more, her friendship is more important to me.

My thoughts are interrupted when somebody grabs my shoulders from behind me. I whip around to find Gale Hawthorne smirking down at me. "Hey, kid," He says. "Do you know where Katniss is? She told me she was going to be here." The idea of Gale stealing Katniss away bothers me. She's supposed to hang out with me today.

"No." I lie. "I haven't seen her,"

"Oh," Gale looks down. "Okay," With that he walks away.

"Wow," Delly says. "You lied to Gale." I turn around. I didn't even know Delly was there. But I'm already going over everything that just happened. I think Gale has feelings for Katniss too. Which means I have to keep Katniss away from Gale so he can't ask her out.

"We need to keep Gale away from Katniss," I tell my sister.

"Okay Peeta," Delly says. "I'll help you – wait a minute, that farmer guy has a pig for a prize!" Delly runs over to the booth, I watch as she approaches me again with the pig on the rope. "His name is Buttercup!" Delly formally introduces me to the pig and then Katniss gets back from the bathroom.

We walk around more until Katniss stops at a booth. "I need that stuffed animal, man." She points to a giant stuffed squirrel. I look at the game, it seems simple enough, you thrown a ball and knock over one pin. I step up to the booth. When I get the ball, I look back at Katniss who gives me a thumbs up. I turn back around and throw the ball. But I miss and it ricochets and ends up hitting Katniss in the eye.

My own eyes widen and I start to panic. "Oh, no!" I say. "I'll go get you some ice for your eye." I run to the ice machine and grab a whole bag when I get back however, Gale is already there holding ice to her eye.

"So, um... Katniss... I was wondering if you maybe wanted to go out with me sometime," Gale says.

"Sure," Katniss says and I drop the bag of ice. "But not today, my eye hurts too bad."

"Of course, do you want me to take you home?"

""Yeah," Katniss sighs. "Let me say goodbye to Peeta real quick." She walks over to me.

"I'm so sorry about your eye," I say when she gets here.

She shrugs. "Don't beat yourself up about it, I'm not mad. It's actually kind of funny..." She laughs. "And I've been hurt way worse, I just need to go home and relax, but I'll see you later for sure."

"See you later," I say, and she walks away from Gale, leaving me and my broken heart all alone. I look at the ground and head back to the Mystery Shack, I don't feel like staying any longer at this lame fair. Suddenly, I knock into someone and we both fall down. I stand up and look at the woman on the ground. She has brown, frizzy hair, and is wearing a gray jumpsuit. "I'm so sorry," I say offering her my hand to help her stand up, she scowls at me and stands up by herself.

"You're wasting my time, kid," She says. "Tick tock!" She runs off, leaving me confused. I watch her disappear into the crowed then look down to find a measuring tape lying on the ground. I don't think it was here before so it must be that woman's. I look around for her but can't find her anywhere so I shrug and stuff into my pocket. Oh well, it's just a measuring tape.

I head inside and go straight to my room, I can't believe Gale really asked Katniss out. Maybe things won't even work out for them. I don't even know what she sees in him. He has emo Justin Bieber hair for crying out loud. I throw my body forward onto my bed and roll over onto my back. Who are you kidding Peeta? I ask myself. I never stood a chance with Katniss, and I should have know she would have ended up with Gale. The truth is, he is good looking, his hair is fabulous, and he's actually Katniss' age! I'll never be anything more than that weird kid that chases down the supernatural!... Of course, she did tell me she did that too... I guess she's a little weird too... But that still doesn't mean I have a chance with her. I'm not her age.

I don't know how long I stare at the ceiling for, but it must be several hours, because when I finally stand up (because I need to use the toilet) the sun is setting. When I'm done in the bathroom, I find Delly standing in the hallway.

"Why'd you leave the fair?" She says, and I notice the pig in her arms.

"How did you win that pig anyway?" I question and it snorts at me.

"I guessed how much he weighed." She explains.

"Who was giving them out, I didn't see."

"The Goat Man,"

"But he's the Goat Man, he sells goats."

Delly shrugs. "Apparently he has pigs too." She squints at me. "You're sad, aren't you?"

With a sigh, I motion for her to follow me into our room. She sets the pig down on her bed and I sit down on the floor, when she squats down across from me, I speak. "Gale asked Katniss out,"

"Peeta, I'm sure it won't last long, they don't seem completable."

"And I'm compatible with Katniss?" I ask skeptically.

"I think so, I really do think something could happen between you two... Just maybe not yet," Delly says.

"What do you mean? Not yet?"

"What I mean is you're twelve and she's fifteen, it's kind of weird for a fifteen year old to date a twelve year old." Delly explains. "But, it's not as strange for two adults for a three year age difference to date."

Delly's right. I can just be friends with Katniss for now. "But I still don't like her with Gale,"

Delly laughs then looks at my bed. "Hey where did you get that?" Delly stands up and picks up the measuring tape.

"Oh, I found it at the fair." I tell her. "Some woman dropped it but she was gone before I could return it to her."

"Well, I love playing with measuring tapes," Delly pulls the tape out a little and releases it, snapping it back into the case. Suddenly, the room turns white for half a second then goes back to normal. Delly and I share a look, then she turns to look at her bed. "Buttercup is gone!"" Delly says. Sure enough, the pig is gone.

"Maybe he ran out?" I suggest. We search the whole house, but don't find him. "He must be outside," I try to reassure Delly. I march over to the front door and swing it open. No one is outside except for Finnick and Grunkle Mitch. Maybe the cops showed up and closed the fair?

"How's the dunk tank coming along Finnick?" I hear Grunkle Mitch says. They must be taking it apart.

"This baby is rigged left and right," Finnick says. "There's no way they'll be able to dunk you,"

"That's what I like to hear!" Mitch pats Finnick's shoulder.

This seems familiar, like this conversation has happened before... I move closer.

"I mean, it might dunk you if some kind of laser arm cannon was fired at it... But I don't think that would happen." Laser arm cannon? My mind starts racing.

"Hey," Grunkle Mitch says after a moment. "Have you seen my screwdriver? It's missing."

Oh my gosh! This definitely happened this morning! I check the sun's position, it's not setting, it's rising! I just traveled back I time, but how? Wait. I need to tell Delly!

"Delly! Delly!" I run to her. "I know why you're pig is gone!"

"You do? Why?"

"We traveled back in time to this morning! See, Finnick and Grunkle Mitch are just setting up the fair!"

"So, Buttercup is gone because I haven't won him yet?" Delly concludes.

"Yeah," I say. I can't believe time travel is real! When I was younger I dreamed of traveling back in time, now I've done it! "Now I can stop Gale from asking Katniss out!"

"And I can win Buttercup again!" Delly exclaims.

We both run off in different directions, I call Katniss and ask if she wants to hang out she agrees and I wait for her to arrive.

When she gets here we walk around until she points to the stuffed animal she wants. Okay, I think this is your second chance, don't blow it. I throw the ball, and sure enough, it rikoshees and hits Katniss again! Panicking, I run to get ice but when I get back, Gale is already there ready to ask Katniss out. I run and find Delly.

"It didn't work!" I shout.

The pig sequels. "What didn't work?" Delly asks.

"Gale asked Katniss out again!"

"It's okay," Delly tries to calm me down. "Let's try again," Delly pulls the measuring tape out.

We replay the day over and over again but the only timeline Gale doesn't ask Katniss out in is one where Delly doesn't get her pig. So I let the day play out the way it did originally. It's not like I had a chance with Katniss anyway, I'd rather let Delly keep her pig. Besides, I think Delly was right. Katniss and Gale won't last long. I pull out the measuring tape and stare at it for moment.

"Hey!" A woman shouts. I turn around and find the woman I got the measuring tape from. "That doesn't belong to you!"

"I'm sorry," I hand it back to her.

"You messed with the timeline today!" She yells. "Do you realize how much trouble you've caused me?"

Two men appear out of nowhere. "Wiress!" One yells. "This is the Time Paradox Avoidance Enforcement Squadron."

"Oh," She says. "Thank goodness you're here, this boy-"

"Enough!" The other one shouts and puts her in handcuffs. "You are under arrest.'

"But-"

"You'll have plenty of time to talk in prison,"

"I'll get you and your sister for this!" She shouts at me. "When I'm through with you you'll wish you hadn't been born- actually, you'll wish you had been born, because I'm going to wish you hadn't been born!" They pull her away.

"Hey you!" Grunkle Mitch shouts from where he sits on the dunk tank.

"Me?" One of the men from the Time Paradox Avoidance Enforcement Squadron asks.

"Yeah, you!" My Grunkle shouts. "I bet you can't dunk me."

The man pulls out a laser arm cannon and blasts it at the target, dunking my Grunkle. The Time Paradox Avoidance Enforcement Squadron disappear and I smirk as my Grunkle struggles to get back up. I spend the rest of the day at the fair with Delly and her pig.

 **Okay! Now that I've finished writing this story you can expecta more regular updating schedule. I'm going to be posting several chapters every week, to make up for how long you guys had to wait. I hope you guys enjoy this story. Please tell me what you think in the reviews.**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Dreamscaperers

(Peeta's POV)

Monday morning after the whole time travel incident is spent inside due to a rain storm. Our Grunkle closed up shop for the day and insisted Finnick, Annie, and Katniss shouldn't walk home in the rain. We spend the majority of the day watching lame horror movies and playing board games. When the rain clears up Delly, Katniss and Annie go outside to stretch their legs. I would have went out but Finnick didn't want to to and I didn't want to be the only boy. What if they wanted to do girl talk? So I sit with Finnick and Grunkle Mitch until they get back. Mitch falls asleep and Finnick sprays shaving cream on his hand. I smirk and open the journal.

Suddenly the girls burst through the door with wide eyes Finnick stands up. "What's wrong?"

"We saw Cato in the woods," Delly says.

"What did he do to you?" I stand up, tossing the journal to the side to join the girls and Finnick.

"He didn't do anything to us," Annie says. "I don't even think he saw us."

"Then what's wrong?" Finnick scratches his head.

"We witnessed something kind of... disturbing," Annie says.

Katniss finally speaks up. "He summoned some kind of... demon to do his bidding..."

"His bidding?" I ask. "A demon?"

"Why does he need a demon to do his bidding?" Finnick asks.

"He's still upset about me dumping him," Delly says. "He wants to get revenge by taking control of the Mystery Shack."

"How's he going to do that?" I roll my eyes.

"The demon he summoned is named Bill," Delly says. "Cato made a deal with Bill, if Bill goes into our Grunkle's ind and gets the combination to his safe where he keeps the deed, Cato can ste4al the deed and take over the shack!"

"We need to help Mitchell!" Finnick says.

Katniss nudges me. "Does your journal say anything about Bill?"

I run to the journal, flipping the pages until I find a picture of a triangle with one eye and two arms and legs. "Bill." I read the text written above the picture.

"That's him," Delly says. "What does it say?"

I take a deep breath and read the words out loud. "Beware Bill. The most powerful and dangerous creature I've ever encountered. Whatever you do, never let him into your mind."

"Grunkle Mitch!" Delly says.

I look at my sleeping Grunkle then continue reading. "It is possible to follow the demon into a person's mind and prevent chaos. One must simply recite this incantation." Suddenly a strange triangle shaped shadow appears over Grunkle Mitch and disappears into his head. "Okay, get ready guys," I say. "We're about to journey into the most horrifying, disturbing place any of us have ever been. Our uncle's mind."

"He's actually not my uncle," Annie says suddenly. "And he's not Finnick or Katniss' uncle either."

"I know, I meant 'our' as I me and Delly." I explain.

"Oh, okay," Annie says. "You can read the incantation now."

So we take hands and stand in a circle around our Grunkle. "Videntus omnium. Magister mentium. Magnesium ad hominem. Magnum opus. Habeas corpus! Inceptus Nolanus overratus! Magister mentium! Magister mentium! MAGISTER MENTIUM!"  
Suddenly we're standing in a circle outside in front of the Mystery Shack. I can tell we're in Mitch's mind because the setting is different. And old damaged boat looks shipwrecked here in the woods. "This must be Mitch's mind." I finally say.

"I figured there would be a lot more hot old ladies." Finnick shrugs.

"Remember to look out for the triangle guy." I remind everyone.

"Yeah," An unfamiliar voice says, and we turn towards the voice and find Bill floating in front of the shack. "Look out for the triangle guy." I should be more terrified but all I can do now is wonder how he can speak without a mouth. Where is his voice coming from!

"You leave our Grunkle alone you isosceles monster!" Delly shouts.

"Ah," Bill sighs. "Mitch's family, we meet at last! Rainbow trout, Mockingjay, Shooting Star, and Pine Tree, I had a hunch I might bump into you."

I squint. Bill named us based off of something we wear everyday. Finnick always wears this shirt from the Mystery Shack with a rainbow trout on it, Katniss always wears her Mockingjay pin, Delly's favorite sweater has a shooting star on it, and my hat has a pine tree on it. But he left Annie out for some reason. "Couldn't think of a nickname for Annie?" I ask.

"Sure," Bill laughs. "Let's go with that!"

"I want a nickname!" Annie protests.

"Fine," Bill rolls his eye. "I'll call you... Red. Happy now?"

"Very." Annie says. "Now what do you want in their Grunkle's mind?"

"Oh, just the code to the old man's safe!" Bill explains. "Inside the shack is a maze of a thousand doors representing each of your uncle's memories. Behind one of them is a memory of him inputting the code. I just need to find it and Cato will pay me handsomely."

"Not if we stop you!" I say.

"Ha! Fat chance!" He laughs. "I'm the master of the mind. I even know what you're thinking right now... You're thinking about your dear friend Mockingjay... Would you like me to explain exactly what you're thinking about her?"

"No!" I say and Katniss narrows her eyes at me. "I mean, it's not important, you're just trying to distract us!"

Bill laughs again. "Alright, alright, I'll leave you be then... I have more important things to do." Bill floats into the house, and we run after him. Bill was right, Mitch's mind is a maze of doors. How are we ever going to find the code before Bill?

"Let's split up," Katniss suggests. "Finnick, you go with Delly and Annie, and I'll go with Peeta," She narrows her eyes at me again.

"Okay," Finnick says and he runs off with the girls leaving me and Katniss standing in awkward science.

"Soo..." Katniss says. "Why didn't you want Bill to say what you were thinking about me?" I'm speechless. I really hoped she would forget about that. "Do you not like me or something?"

"No!" I say. "It's not that I don't like you... it's the opposite of that, really."

She blinks at me. "You... like... me?"

Oh my gosh! Did I just say that?" "Oh, not like that," I try to explain. "I mean like, I... think you're my best friend, but I was embarrassed to tell you."

"Oh," Katniss smiles. "That's all?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, I think you're my best friend too." She admits. "Gale used to be my best friend but things are kind of awkward now that he wants to go out with me."

"You don't want to go out with him?" I ask.

"Not really," She shrugs. "I don't see him that way, but I didn't want to ruin our friendship by turning him down."

"Oh,"

"I think I'm going to talk to him about that." She says. "We should probably start looking for the door."

"Okay," I say pulling open the first door. It's not the combination. We go through about twenty five doors before I get to one of my Grunkle and Finnick sitting on the porch.

"Dude, Mitch," Finnick says. "I've been meaning to ask you. Why are you so hard on Peeta?" This draws my attention. I would like to know the answer to this question.

"Look Finnick," He says. "I'm gonna let you in on something. You wanna know what I really think? The kid's a loser." My heart cracks. "He's weak. He's an utter embarrassment. I just want to get rid of him." I slam the door and blink away tears. How could my Grunkle say those things about me? He must really hate me.

"Hey," Katniss gently touches my shoulder. "I'm sure he didn't mean it." Great! Katniss saw my Grunkle say those things.

"He said I was an embarrassment and he wanted to get rid of me,"

"Peeta," Katniss sighs. "I've been working for your Grunkle for a while and I know-"

"He still said it," I turn to face her. "That's it! I'm done solving all this problems. I work for him all day and night, and all he does in return is say he wants to get rid of me!"

"Peeta-"

"Peeta!" Delly interrupts Katniss. "Bill found the door!"

"I don't care anymore,"

"Peeta," Katniss says. "Why don't you stay here while we try to get the door back?"

Maybe I should, I start to reason. "Okay, I'll try to find the way out of Mitch's mind." They run off and I start opening doors. Eventually I get to the one from earlier. I decide to watch the whole thing to see if he says anything else I should know about.

"The kid's a loser. He's weak. He's an utter embarrassment. I just want to get rid of him." I can't take it anymore. I start to close the door. "Those are all the things people said about me when I was a boy." I swing the door wide open. "I was the biggest wimp on the playground. So one summer my pop signs me up for boxing lessons, and it was even worse than the schoolyard! You know at the time, I thought my pop was trying to torture me. But wouldn't you know it? The old man was doing me a favor all along. That's why I'm hard on Peeta. To toughen him up, so when the world fights, he fights back." I smile.

"Do you think it's working?" Finnick asks him.

Grunke Mitch nods his head. "He's really coming along... When push comes to shove, I'm actually proud of him... Just don't' ever tell him that." Grinning, I lean into the door frame but end up falling into the memory. "Whoa kid, what are you doing here?"

"I... I... We're fighting a triangle demon guy." I try to explain.

"Well," My Grunkle opens up a beer. Word to the wise, kid, we're in the mind. You can do whatever you can imagine here."

"I've got to stop Bill!" I run out of the memory and start searching for Bill and the others. When I find them Bill is taunting them with their nightmares. "You guys," I shout. "We're in the mind. You can imagine things to stop Bill!"

"Don't listen to him," Bill says. "He doesn't know what he's talking about."

"Oh, really?" I snap my fingers and their nightmares go away.

Delly laughs and starts shooting cats out of her fists. That's one way to fight Bill... I guess. The others start imagining fighting techniques to attack Bill. We do this for several minutes, and I can tell Bill is getting ready to explode.

"Enough!" Bill finally shouts, and once again, I'm wondering how he can make any noise without a mouth. We stop fighting him. "I'm impressed with you guys. You're a lot more clever than you look. So I'm going to let you off the hook... You might come in handy later. But knows this, a darkness approaches." He warns. "A day will come in the future when everything will change. Until then, I'll be watching you." Bill starts to disappear. "I'll be watching you." Then he's gone.

We start fading away. "Mitch must be waking up." Finnick says, and suddenly we're standing in a circle around our Grunkle again, and our Grunkle is awake.

"Why are you kids standing around me?" He looks down at his hand covered in shaving cream from the long forgotten prank. "Oh, nice!" He flings the shaving cream at me. I stand there for a moment then with a smirk, I sprint to the bottle of shaving cream laying on the couch, run back to him and start spraying him. This initiates a shaving cream war. We get so wrapped up that we don't notice when the ground starts shaking until something explodes.

"What was that?" Grunkle Mitch says. "Where did it come from?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, Mellark family, did I interrupt something?" Cato asks walking into the living room from where Mitch keeps the safe holding the deed to the shack.

"But we defeated Bill," Delly says.

"Bill failed me, so I switched to plan b. Dynamite." Cato giggles.

"What? Bill?" Grunkle Mitch says in confusion. "Who- wh- what are you guys talking about?"

"Spoiler alert, Mitchell. I've got the deed!" Cato says. "The Mystery Shack belongs to me! So get off my property!"

 **Okay, I'm planning on posting chapter 9 but if for some reason I don't. It should be soon. How did you guys like Bill? I didn't want to make him a Hunger Games character because it just didn't feel right, so I just kept him the way he is in the show. I hope you guys liked this chapter. Have a great day.**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Cato Rises

(Peeta's POV)

Cato took over the Mystery Shack! He kicked us all out and now we're living with Finnick and his grandma Mags. Real or not real? I'm sure this is just a terrible nightmare and when I wake up, I'll be at the Mystery Shack. Slowly I open my eyes and find that this nightmare is real, and my Grunkle got kicked out of his house because I made enemies with the wrong nine year old.

I look around and find my Grunkle parked on the sofa next to Finnick. Mags is sleeping in a recliner and Delly... is trying to eat sparkles... Oh, my dear twin sister.

"Oh, dude,"Finnick nudges Mitch. "The news is starting."

I turn my attention to the TV where Effie Trinket is being broadcasted live. "In a move that has all of Panem Falls buzzing, child psychic Cato Snow has taken surprise ownership of the Mystery Shack, previously belonging to area shyster Mitchell Mellark." Effie says and a picture of Mitch dressed as the devil appears on the screen.

"That picture was taken out of context." Mitch complains.

Next, Cato appears on the screen at Effie's side. She crouches down beside him holding a microphone up to his face. "Cato, now that you have the shack, what are you planning to do with it?"

"Well," Cato says. "I'm glad you asked. I have a big announcement to make today, and I'd like to cordially invite everyone in Panem Falls to join me." Cordially? What kind of a nine year old uses the word cordially? "Free admission to everyone who wears my new Cato pins!" He adds.

"This is all my fault," I say.

"Don't worry Peeta, I'll take care of it," Delly says. "I'll defeat Cato with my grappling hook!" She pulls it out of her pocket. Well, I am impressed she carries that thing around everyday, but I don't think it's going to save the day, like Delly keeps insisting.

"Delly," I say. "No offense but that grappling hook has literally not helped us once."

"It will come in handy someday!" She says. "I just know it!"

We decide to sneak into Cato's big announcement today. However I'm not sure if they'll let us in so we let Delly disguise us. Mitch even buys Cato pins so we won't have to pay for admission. As we walk in I notice Old Man Latier working on a giant metal statue of Cato, it brings to mind his gobblewonker from earlier this summer. I notice Katniss and casually walk over to her. "Hey, Katniss."

"Hey," She gives me a weak smile.

"How have you been?" I ask.

"I don't know man, I'm having trouble finding a new job. And if I can't find one soon, I'm going to have to work upstate at my cousins logging camp."

"What?" I panic. "You're leaving town? But you can't do that, we need you here."

"Yeah," Delly says from behind me. "Especially Peeta, because of his giant crush on you." I glare at Delly, silently pleading her to save me. "Calyptus trees! My brother loves eucalyptus trees." I really hope she buys that. Even if she thinks I'm some eucalyptus tree loving freak, at least she wouldn't know my feelings for her, which are only growing.

"Katniss!" I hear Gale's emo voice call from across the crowd.

"Crap," Katniss says. "I broke up with him last night. I've got to go." She runs into the woods and climbs up a nearby tree. She's very fast at climbing, I observe.

Gale runs over to us. "Which way did Katniss go?"

"Uhh... I'm not sure, I wasn't paying attention," I say.

Gale runs off in the opposite direction Katniss went. "Katniss, give me another chance!" He shouts.

"I told you it wouldn't last long." Delly shrugs.

"I'm glad you were right." I say.

"You've go to make your move before someone else does." Delly says.

"But you said she was too old for me."

"I mean, Gale was her best friend and now she's avoiding him, she needs a new best friend."

"Done." I say. "We became best friends when we were in Mitch's mind. But what about when I'm older? How can I date her if I end up getting friendzoned like Gale?"

"Let that be future Peeta's problem,"

Delly's right. I need to focus on the present instead of worrying about the future. "Okay."

We rejoin Mitch and Finnick just before Cato starts his big announcement. "Ladies and Gentlemen," Cato starts. "I am delighted to announce my plans for the former Mystery Shack! I give you," He pulls a blanket off a table to show a model for some amusement park. "Catoland!" The crowd starts cheering.

"So basically, you're making some full year version of my Mystery Fair?" Mitch calls out.

"Oh, no, course not." Cato says. "Unlike your Mystery Fair, Catoland will actually pass safety regulations."

"Now you listen here kid," My Grunkle walks over to Cato. "I am going to get my Mystery Shack back, and you are going to be sorry you ever tried to take it from me and my family."

"Now you listen here, fatty. I've got the deed, I've won this game." Cato says. "Security! Please remove the Mellark family from _my_ property."

Security drags us off the property and we go back to Finnick's house. Finnick was kicked out of the announcement too because the security guards thought he was a Mellark. He might as well be one, he's so loyal to our family. He was pissed when Cato kicked us out of our home. I really do believe Finnick would do anything for us.

About an hour after we get back to Finnick's house Mitch calls me and Delly into the kitchen to talk to us. "Look kids," He starts. "Things are getting rough for me, and I think it's in your best interest that you... go back home."

"But Grunkle Mitch-" I start to protest.

"No kid," He cuts me off. "I can't take care of you anymore... When the bus arrives, I want both of you to get on... Summer's over."

I can't believe this! Grunkle Mitch is trying to send us home. It's my fault that's he's in this mess. If I hadn't pissed Cato off, he never would have gone after the Mystery Shack. I have to fix this. Delly looks at me when our Grunkle leaves the kitchen. "I'm going to help you," She says Okay. I start planning. Cato may have the upper hand, but we've got the journal. I open the book to a random page, and get an idea. After making some deals we speed over to the Mystery Shack where I'm sure we'll find Cato. Sure enough he's there.

"What are you two doing on my property?" Cato asks when he notices us.

"We're here to take back the Mystery Shack!" Delly yells.

"Oh really?" Cato says. "You and what army?"

"I'm glad you asked." I grin as the gnomes come out from the forest. Delly convinced them to help us out. "You might as well give up now, Cato."

"No, no, no!" Cato shouts pulling a whistle out of his pocket and blowing into it furiously. Suddenly the gnomes stop their attack. What's going on? I look around. Cato smirks. "Seize them!" He orders the gnomes and they immediately go after us. The whistle put the gnomes under Cato's control. The gnomes grab us. "I have to admit, kids," Cato says, as if he was an adult and has the right to call us kids. "I am impressed by your creativity. How did you ever?"

"Let go!" I try to escape from the gnomes but the movement only causes the journal to fall out of my pocket. Oh, no! No!

"Of course!" Cato grabs the journal. "It all makes sense! The one place I'd never think to look. You had it the whole time! And to think, I actually considered you a threat!"

"Give it back!" I shout.

He laughs. "Every victory you had was because of your precious book!"

"Give it back or I'll... I'll..." I don't know what to do. "I'll-"

"You'll what?" Cato interrupts me. "Huh? Huh? No muscles. No brains. Face it. You're nothing without this!" He waves the journal around tauntingly. "Take them to the bus stop, boys. The Mellarks have a bus to catch." The gnomes drop us off and we wait for the bus in defeat.

(Cato's POV)

I can't believe this is finally happening! I've got it! I've finally got it! It's finally mine. At last, I have journal number... I flip the journal over to the front cover and blink in surprise. Three? "There are three of them?" I say to myself. "But where is journal number one? I must have all three for the power to be unlocked!"

"Peeta," I say between clenched teeth. He must know where it is! He gave me the third one and kept the first one for himself! I can't let him leave Panem Falls. "You there!" I call up to Old Man Latier who is working on my gigantic Cato robot. The old man is crazy, but he really is a genius when it comes to machinery. "Is it ready?"

Old Man Latier looks over at me. "Only one way to find out." He gets down from the robot and helps me in. I take a deep breath. Soon I will have all three journals.

(Peeta's POV)

I sit next to Delly on the bus, our Grunkle dropped off our luggage. "I can't believe this is how our summer is ending," Delly says. "Maybe we should try harder to stop Cato. You always have a plan."

"No," I turn to look out the window. "The journal always has a plan. Cato was right. The only courageous or cool things I've ever done have been because of the journal. Without it, I can't help you or Mitch or anyone."

"There's gotta be something we can do," Delly sighs.

"What can we do Delly?" I ask. "We're already on the bus,"

"Giant robot!" Delly exclaims suddenly .

"Giant robot?" I turn around to the back window and find a giant robot that looks just like Cato. Great, as if stealing my journal wasn't enough. What does he want now?

"Bus driver," Delly runs toward the front. "There's a giant Catobot following us." I run to the front of the bus and find Finnick behind the wheel.

"You're a bus driver?" I ask.

"I needed a new job after Cato took over the shack." He shrugs.

"Okay." I say. "Can you get us away from the Catobot?"

"Sure thing," We start to go faster than I thought a bus could go, but it's not fast enough. The Catobot follows closely behind. I motion for Delly to follow me and together we jump off the moving bus, and run into the forest. Unfortunately, Cato saw us jump out and the Catobot follows us and before long he grabs us. Cato goes to a window in the robot and glares at me.

"What do you want Cato?" I ask. "You already took everything from us."

"That's a lie and you know it, Peeta Mellark." He snarls. "You have journal number one! You gave me journal number three and kept the first one for yourself!"

"I don't know what your talking about!" I say. "You took the only journal I ever had! What do you want with these journals anyway?"

Cato turns to Delly. "Once I find the final journal, I'll rule this town with you as my queen!"

"Ew, gross!" Delly says.

"Leave my sister alone," I say.

"You're nothing without the journal." Cato says. "How are you gonna fight back? No muscles, no brains. What are you going to do? Huh?" I throw my body through the window, knocking Cato down, we start fighting. Delly gets up here using her grappling hook and starts fighting Cato, too. Eventually the Catobot crashes to the ground. Just moments after it crashes the townspeople gather around the Catobot.

Cato starts crying when someone asks him what happened. "It was the Mellark twins! They tried to attack me and blew up my statue with dynamite! Arrest 'em!"

"Wait! Wait" Grunkle Mitch pushes his way through the crowd. "I've got something to say! You all think Cato is so perfect and honest."

"He's more honest than you!" One person shouts. "And he's psychic."

"How's this for psychic?" Mitch tears some metal off the statue, revealing a bunch of screens with the townspeople on them. "That's right." Mitch pulls a Cato pin out of his pocket. "These pins are hidden cameras. My hearing aid was picking up the feedback! Who's the fraud now?"

"It's not what it looks like," Cato says nervously.

"Cato, you are under arrest for conspiracy, fraud, and breaking our hearts." Sheriff Flickerman says pulling Cato's arms behind his back.

Mitch pulls the deed out of Cato's pocket. "I believe this is mine." This reminds me of my journal so I take the journal away from Cato.

We finally go back to the Mystery Shack and put our stuff away. With everything that's happened, I really want to show Mitch the journal. "Hey, Grunkle Mitch," Delly and I sit down next to him on the couch. "There's something we need to tell you."

"Okay..."

"This is a journal we found in the woods." I pull it out, and swear I hear him gasp. "It talks about all the crazy stuff that goes on in Panem Falls. Cato nearly destroyed the town trying to find it. I don't know what it means or who wrote it, but I thought after all we've been through, maybe you should know about it."

"I'm glad you showed me this," Grunkle Mitch says. "Now I finally know where you've been getting all this from!"

"But it's all real!" I say.

"You gotta quit reading this fantasy nonsense for your own good." He says. "Although some of these would make great attractions for the Mystery Shack. Can I borrow this?"

"But I need it!" Mitch stands up and goes to his room.

"Relax Peeta." Delly says. "You defeated the Catobot without the journal. You're not useless without it like Cato said."

"Thanks Delly." I say. "I still want it back though."

"I'm sure you'll get it back." Delly shrugs. "What would a boring old man like Mitch want with it anyway?"

(Grunkle Mitch's POV)

Once the kids are fast asleep I make my way to the lab behind the vending machine. After all these years I finally have them all! I can't believe I've been searching thirty years for journals two and three and I found them the same day. Cato had journal number two and Peeta had journal number three.

With all three journals I can finally start the machine up! I spend hours figuring out the coding when it finally turns on. "It's working," I say. "After all these years it's finally working."

 **Okay, so this was the last chapter of the first half of the story. I hope you guys liked it! I'll be posting chapter 10 at the start of next week. I'm going to go ahead and warn those of you who haven't seen Gravity Falls, there's going to be a lot of drama and plot twists and cliffhangers. Also if you haven't seen an episode of Gravity Falls you really should go watch it. Anyway, have a great weekend.**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Scary-oke

(Peeta's POV)

It's been a week since we defeated Cato and got the Mystery Shack back, and tonight is the grand reopening party. Delly planned the after party, she even got a karaoke machine. Anyway, Gloss takes our pictures to put in his failing newspaper. Everyone loves our family right now for exposing Cato, but we'll see how long that lasts. My Grunkle has a way of getting on people's nerves.

"Hey, everybody!" Delly calls to the townspeople before they leave. "We're having an after party at nine o'clock. Bring everyone you know, it's going to be epic!... And as a special treat, my Great uncle, Peeta, and I will perform karaoke together!"

Wait, what? I never agreed to this! I can't sing in front of the whole town. My voice is terrible! The crowd leaves, promising to come back for the after party. "Delly!" I call. "Why would you tell everyone we were performing?"

"Because we're going to perform."

"You didn't even asks us," I protest.

"Because I knew you'd say no."

"You know I don't like singing in front of people!"

"It will be okay, Peeta," Delly walks away from me to set up decorations.

"Hey," Katniss calls from behind me so I turn around to meet her. "I heard you're performing," "That's what Delly is saying," I shrug.

"Are you doing the lamby lamby dance?"

"I don't even know what Delly expects us to sing, she didn't even tell us we were performing,"

"Well," Katniss says. "You can't possibly be more awkward than your Grunkle."

I shrug. She has a point there. Maybe Grunkle Mitch will distract from my awkwardness. "I guess you're right."

"Of course I am," She takes my hat off and ruffles my hair. I laugh and snatch my hat away from her, placing it back on my head. We lock eyes. Her eyes are so pretty. I could stare at those silver orbs that practically glow in the moonlight, all night. And her eyelashes are so long. I really hate this age difference. Not that I think it would make a difference if I was older. I don't think she'd like me like that. We continue to stare at each other, and for whatever reason, this doesn't feel awkward.

"Everyone out of the Mystery Shack!" I hear my Grunkle call and Katniss looks toward the shack.

"What's going on?" She says. "Mitch would never close down the shack early." We run into the shack where we find two men in suits standing with Finnick and Mitch, Delly comes in from the kitchen carrying her pig.

"Welcome to the Mystery Shack, gentlemen," Mitch says. "What can I get you? Key chains? Snow globes? These rare photos of American presidents?" He pulls out some cash and I roll my eyes. Smooth.

"We're here to investigate report of mysterious activity in this town." One says.

"Mysterious activity in the Mystery Shack?" He puts the cash back in his pocket. "You must be joking."

"Wait," I say. "You guys are investigating the mysteries of this town?"

"That's classified information." One bends down to meet my eyes. "But yes."

"Between you and me," He says. "I believe there is a conspiracy of paranormal origin all connected to this town."

"We're just one small lead away from blowing the lid off of this entire mystery." The other says.

"I'm actually investigating the exact same thing!" I exclaim. "I found this journal in the woods which has almost all the answers." I pull the journal out. Mitch gave it back just like Delly said he would. "If we work together, we could crack the case." My heartbeat speeds up. I've always wanted to do something like this!

"Well," One government man says. "If you have evidence of these claims we should talk." He hands me his card.

"We can talk right now," I say.

"I'm sorry, agents." Grunkle Mitch says suddenly. "Kid has an overactive imagination and... like... a sweating problem. Paranormal town stuff, it's just part of the gift shop lore, sell more tickets you know."

"We have other spots to investigate." One says. "We'll be on our way." They head to the door.

"Wait! No, wait!" I say. Mitch grabs my shoulder.

"I'll be confiscating this," He takes the card. "Why don't you go try to act like a normal kid,"

"A... normal kid?"

"Yeah, a normal kid. All this talk of paranormal activity isn't good for your head." He says.

"But it's real." I try to explain. "Delly and Katniss and Finnick and Annie saw it too."

"That's enough kid!" He stomps into his office.

"We believe you Peeta," Delly says.  
Katniss sighs. "I forgot to tell you not to tell the adults about the paranormal stuff."

"Why?"

"They won't believe us," She says. "I don't know why, but they don't see any paranormal activity... or... if they do, they don't remember any of it."

"What do you mean?"

"Well," Katniss says. "Not too long ago, Gale was going off about a bunch of living gnomes he found, but the next day when I asked him about it, he didn't know what I was talking about."

"Something similar happened to my grandmother." Finnick says.

"We... need to get that card back." I say. "I really need to talk to those agents." We plan out everything, Delly and Finnick are the lookouts, they will tell Katniss if my Grunkle is coming and she will get me out of there in time. Once I get into his office, I frantically search for the card. Eventually, I find it, and get out of there. The plan actually worked! Finnick lets me use his phone to call the agents. I tell them to meet me in the woods just outside the Mystery Shack, and they agree to my surprise. Finnick and Delly stay behind to start selling tickets into the party, but Katniss goes with me. We both have had our share of paranormal activity, we have a better chance of the agent's believing if there's two of us.

Before we go, Delly taps my shoulder. "Peeta, whatever the agents say, don't do anything that could ruin this party." She says. "Don't do something stupid... like... like raise the dead."

"Okay, okay," I brush her off and follow Katniss into the woods.

We wait a few minutes and the agents do come. "Make this fast, kid."

"Okay," I take a deep breath. "This journal is a guide to the paranormal happenings in this town." I hand it to one of them.

He starts flipping through the pages. "You said you found this in the woods?"

"Yes," I nod. "I found it in this area, actually."

"Kid, all these look like are fairy tales," He says. "Living gnomes, ghosts, zombies,"

"I'm telling the truth, it's all real!" I take the book. I skim through the page and find an incantation, and read it aloud without hesitation. "Corpus Levitas! Diablo Dominus! Mondo Victum!" The ground starts shaking and suddenly a hand pops out of the ground, it continues to dig itself out of it's grave, until it's decomposing body is full unearthed. "There, a zombie!"

"Wow, this truly is incredible!" One agent says right before another hand sprouts from the ground, grabbing his ankle. Zombies start digging themselves out of the ground. This is going to get out of hand quickly.

Someone grabs my hand from behind, I wipe around and sigh in relief. It's just Katniss. "We need to run!" She says, motioning toward the crowd of zombies tearing at the agents. We take off running toward the Mystery Shack. We need to warn the town.

"Zombies!" I scream, hoping they can hear me over the loud music. "Zombies!" I run right into Delly, as the crowd of zombies approach the shack.

"Peeta, what's the one thing I told you not to do today?" She asks.

"Raise the dead." I says.

"And what did you do?"

"Raise the dead." I lower my head until the townsfolk start screaming. Everyone takes off in different directions. I've never seen anyone so panicked. I guess the zombie apocalypse will do that to you... Finnick comes running toward us.

"We need to get inside!" He shouts. So we run toward the doors, the zombies are all around us. We slam the front door and lock it but the zombies are pounding on the door trying to get in. Why did I have to read the incantation? The zombies bursts through the door, Finnick and Katniss immediately throw us behind them and start attacking zombies. They are both really good fighters, like they were gladiators in another life. But I still don't like our odds.

Grunkle Mitch comes out from nowhere and starts fighting zombies. "Get in the attic, kids!" He says to all four of us. We run up the stairs into the attic, our Grunkle runs into the attic and starts blockading the door.

"Well," I laugh as I push a bookshelf toward the door. "At least you can't say you don't believe me about the paranormal stuff anymore." Not that it matters, we're practically dead.

He looks at me. "Kid, I've always known," He admits.

"What?" I ask. "But why would-"

"I thought if I denied that all of this existed... You would give up on it." He explains. "I didn't want you kids to get hurt. I thought I was protecting you."

I guess I can understand this. He only did this to protect me and my sister. I can't be mad at him for caring about our safety. I forgive him.

"Why don't you see if that journal of yours has a way to get rid of these zombies," Mitch says.

"Right!" I pull the journal out and flip to the section on zombies. I've read this journal over and over, but maybe I missed something. I quickly read but don't find anything. "There's nothing."

"Are you sure?" Delly says. "Maybe you can't see in this lighting," She turns on a black light and we all gasp. There's more writing on these pages written in some kind of ink you can only see under black light.

I read the newly discovered words out loud. "Zombies can be defeated by playing a three part harmony."

"What does that mean?" Mitch says.

"A three part harmony would be three people singing at the same time." Katniss says with a smirk.

"You know what that means, right?" Delly nudges me and Mitch. "We need to perform our song."

"Why don't you, Peeta, and Katniss do it?" Mitch says. "I'll fight the zombies off."

"I can fight the zombies off." Katniss crosses her arms. "I wouldn't want you to miss out on singing with your niece and nephew."

"Fine," He crosses his arms. "What song are we doing?"

"I was thinking some Taylor Swift." Delly says.

My eyes widen. I can't perform a Taylor Swift song in front of Katniss! "I don't know any of her lyrics." I shrug.

"You liar!" Delly says reaching into her pocket and pulling a picture out. "Here's a picture of us at the 1989 Tour earlier this year. Peeta is a Swiftie."

Finnick and Mitch start laughing. "You like Taylor Swift!" They say, and I duck my head. Dang it! Why doesn't anyone understand that Taylor Swift has 133 awards for a reason!

"Hey," Katniss touches my shoulder. "Taylor Swift is cool." I smile, somebody gets it.

We climb out the window onto the roof and set the karaoke machine up. "Ladies and Gentle zombies!" Delly announces to the undead crowd. "We are going to be performing _I Know Places_ , by Taylor Swift... Enjoy." the music starts and Delly starts.

" _You stand with your hand on my waistline._

 _It's a scene and we're out here in plain sight._

 _I can hear them whisper as we pass by._

 _It's a bad sign, bad sign."_

Delly motions for me to pick up where she left off, so I bring the microphone to my mouth and sing.

" _Something happens when everybody finds out._

 _See the vultures circling dark clouds._

 _Love's a fragile little flame_

 _It could burn out, it could burn out."_

I nudge Grunkle Mitch who scowls at me before singing off key.

" _They got the cages, they got the boxes, and guns._

 _They are the hunters, we are the foxes._

 _And we run."_

All three of us sing the chorus together.

" _Baby, I know places we won't be found_

 _And they'll be chasing their tails trying to track us down._

 _'Cause I... I know places we can hide..._

 _I know places."_

Zombie heads start exploding as we sing the rest of the song together. By the end of the song all the zombies lay lifeless once again on the floor. We clean up, getting rid of all the zombie parts. "Grunkle Mitch," I stop him and he turns around to face me. "I wanted to apologize for causing trouble."

"It's alright kid, you've just got to promise me one thing." He says. "Promise me that you'll only use that journal for self defense. No more searching for trouble."

"Okay," I say to ease his mind. But I'm not sure if I'll be able to stay away from the mysteries of Panem Falls. It's almost like they're calling me to them.

 **I hope you guys like this chapter. Hopefully I will be able to post more chapters this week. Tell me what you think of this story so far in the reviews.**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Into The Bunker

(Peeta's POV)

Things are going great. It's been a few days since the zombie incident and nothing crazy has happened. Although, I'm itching to get into a new adventure, maybe even find out some secrets about the town. I'm at Katniss' house and we're having a monster movie marathon, just the two of us. We're currently watching a crappy zombie movie, complete with terrible acting.

"These movies aren't scary at all when you've dealt with real zombies," I say suddenly, making Katniss laugh.

"They're slow!" She says. "Just power walk away from them." Her phone goes off and she looks at it.

"Who's that?" I ask.

"Gale," She sighs. "He won't stop texting me until I give him another chance."

"What did he say?"

"He sent me a winky frown," She hands me the phone to show me. "What does that even mean?"

"Is it even possible to wink and frown at the same time?" I try to do it and Katniss laughs.

"I don't think so," She lays back on her bed. ""I just wish he would move on,"

"And you're not…" I start. "Not seeing any other guys?"

"Of course I am." She says and my heart sinks. "Meet my new boyfriend," She pulls out a fluffy stuffed bear. Oh, I realize, she was joking. I laugh. Maybe I should ask her out.

"So, you know, I was wondering if maybe you wanted to, I mean, if you and me would ever, I mean…" I trail off. This is a terrible idea! I can't ask Katniss out. I'll ruin our friendship like… Gale for sure! Think of something else to say! "If you wanted to join me and Delly on this mystery hunt tomorrow. Conspiracy stuff and all that."

"Yeah, sure." Katniss says. "I love doing stuff with my friends." Friends. I force a smile. 'Cause that's all we are. It's all we'll ever be. Friends. I throw myself back on the bed and Katniss blinks at me. "Dude, you're lying on my bra." I look over and sure enough, I am. I sit up quickly and focus back on the movie.

The next day, I wait with Delly by the tree I found the journal in. Using the black light to see the invisible words in the journal, I found out that this tree tree is the entrance to some kind of secret hideout. I'm excited, I really think I can get some information about the author by going into his hideout. I've recently become obsessed with discovering the identity of the author.

"So, you invited Katniss today," Delly says.

"Yeah…" I shrug."

"Are you going to tell her how you feel about her?"

"What? No!" I say. "I don't want to ruin our friendship just like Gale did."

"Peeta, I don't think you should hold your feelings in." Delly says. "It's not good for you."

"I can't do that."

"I'm not saying you should ask her out, I just think you should tell her how you feel, so you can get it off your chest and move on with your friendship."

"What if she doesn't want to be my friend anymore?" I ask.

"She won't do that."

"But Gale-" I start.

"Are you going to start following Katniss around and constantly text her if she doesn't feel the same way?" Delly interrupts me.

"No."

"You aren't Gale, Peeta." She says just before Katniss arrives.

"Sup, guys." Katniss says walking over to us. "What are you doing?"

"We're trying to find a way into the secret hideout, it should be around this tree somewhere."

Katniss examines the tree. "Well, for starters it's not a real tree, it's made out of metal." She looks up. "That branch kind of looks like a lever."

"How are we going to get to it?" Delly asks.

"Easy." Katniss says and without hesitation she starts climbing the tree. She quickly gets to the lever and pulls it, opening a hole with stairs leading down into the earth. When Katniss climbs down from the tree we enter the opening.

(Katniss' POV)

We found a fallout shelter. Whoever did all this has food rations to last until 2020. Peeta picks an empty can up from the floor. "This can was opened recently… Someone has been here." He gets excited. "Maybe it's the author of the journal."

A chill runs down my spine. I don't really feel comfortable being down here. Not with these two kids. Not when I don't know if I can protect them. "What if we aren't wanted here…" I say.

"Oh, Katniss," Delly says. "Are you getting scared?"

I can't let them know how much this place creeps me out. They seem completely unaffected by all this. Is this just an everyday thing for them? I blink. "I'm not scared, I just… If someone's down here… It could get dangerous, that's all." I explain.

"I don't think we're in danger," Peeta shrugs. "If anyone's down here, it's the author."

"Alright, I was just worried about you two," I shrug. This place does give me a bad feeling, but I'm sure my anxiety aside and start exploring.

This place is really cool, I'm just not sure if I want to be down here with two twelve year olds… Just in case something bad does happen. I grin and pull my bow from my shoulder. My dad makes me carry around my bow and arrows when I'm out. He wants me to be prepared for the apocalypse. He's very paranoid about stuff like that. At least I'll have a way to protect Peeta and Delly.

I open a door leading some kind of lab. I take a few steps in, setting an alarm. I freeze and turn to find Peeta running over to me.

"Um…" Peeta flips through his journal, then presses a few buttons on a panel by the door, stopping the alarm. "There we go." I smile as Delly walks in.

We explore the lab area for a few minutes. Looking for any sign of the author… or anyone, I guess.

"Hey, guys," Delly calls. "Come check out this cool metal closet!"

"Okay…" I walk over followed by Peeta. Delly steps out of the closet to make room for us. We step and Delly closes the door behind us. I hear the click telling me she locked us in. "What just happened?"

"You can't come out until Peeta tells you something," Delly says.

"Delly," Peeta pleads. "Please don't."

It's so dark in here. I start looking for a light switch but can't find one anywhere on the wall. Maybe there's a pull chain to turn on the light. I reach up and find one then pull it. Sure enough, the lights come on. When my eyes finally focus, I realize I'm starting right into Peeta's blue orbs. I love Peeta's eyes. Delly's are similar but not quite as vibrant. Peeta's eyes look like deep ocean water. His eyes are so pretty. I force myself to look away.

"So what does Delly want you to tell me?"

"Um…" Peeta says. "Well, I-" Suddenly a door opens leading into another lab area. Peeta steps out of the closet and I follow him. "I don't know what Delly wants me to tell you," He shrugs.

I roll my eyes. He's lying. I'm going to make him tell me. I think I know what Delly wants him to say, and I really do think it would be best if he told me. The real problem is what I'm going to tell him. I can't date him. I mean if we were the same age, I would, but a fifteen year old can't date a twelve year old. That's just wrong.

"You can tell me, Peeta," I say. If Peeta tells me, maybe he'll be able to move on from this crush. "Whatever it is, I'm sure it's not that bad."

"Umm-" Peeta is interrupted when a monster jumps down from the ceiling. I knew something bad was going to happen! Peeta runs over to the closet, I pull an arrow and aim it at the creature. "Delly, let us out, there's a monster!"

"The only monsters are your own inner demons!" Delly calls.

"I'm serious!" Peeta pleads.

"Peeta just tell me," I say. "I won't be upset."

"No."

"No?"

"I'm going to find another way out of here," He says.

"What?" He grabs my arm and starts running, dragging me down a tunnel. I can't believe he thought this was the better option. Was I really that bad of a friend that he thinks I'm going to be pissed if he tells me he has a crush on me? I pick up the pace as the monster gets closer. Then we hit a dead end. We're dead. I push Peeta behind me protectively. Knocking an arrow back, I ready myself for when the creature turns the corner. Down the tunnel, I can hear the creature fighting with something, and it sounds like it's losing. All the sudden, it gets quiet, and a man turns the corner.

"Hurry now," He calls to us. "I scared it off for now, but there's no way of telling when it will come back." He dusts off his clothing. "I wasn't expecting guests. I've been down here for a very long time. Years. Weeks even."

"So you're the guy, right?" Peeta says suddenly.

"The guy?" He asks.

"The author of this journal." He pulls it out.

"Oh, yes." He says. "You must have found it."

"What was that… monster chasing us?" I ask.

"One of my experiments. A shapeshifter. It's able to take the form of anything it sees." The author explains. "Unfortunately, it's escaped from a cage of solid steel. I've gone half crazy trying to catch it."

I look around as Peeta chats with the author. I'm sure Peeta has so many questions. So I walk away to give them some privacy. I pick an empty can up from the ground. I hate litter. I squint at the picture on the label then freeze.

"Peeta," I call looking up. He gave this guy the journal. Crap. Peeta walks over.

"Yes?"

"That's not the author." I whisper.

"What do you mean?" Peeta's eyebrows furrow. I show him the label on the can. The author looks exactly like the guy on the can. "You mean… that's the shapeshifter?" I nod. "And… I gave him my journal, and now the shapeshifter can turn into every creature in that book."

"Yep." We look up to find the shapeshifter greedly flipping through the journal. Okay, we need a plan. "Grab the journal on my que." I whisper.

"What que?" Peeta asks before I lunge toward the shapeshifter. I wrestle it until the journal flies out of it's grip. I start running as soon as Peeta grabs it. When I run past Peeta, I grab his arm and drag him along until he starts running at my pace. That is until the shapeshifter throws itself at Peeta, knocking him down. I turn to find the shapeshifter on top of Peeta trying to grab the journal.

"You leave him alone!" I shout searching for something I can use to stop the shapeshifter. I finally find a valve and start turning it. Water rushes out of a pipe and sweeps all of us along with us. I hope Peeta can swim. I look for Peeta. I find him floating and holding the journal above his head so it doesn't get wet. Then I hit my head and everything goes dark.

(Peeta's POV)

When the water washes us onto a dry patch I start laughing. That was genius of Katniss. Hopefully it killed the shapeshifter or at least swept it far enough away so we don't run into it while trying to find the way out. I even kept the journal safe from the water by holding it over my head.

I look around and find Katniss lying on the ground nearby. My heart drops. I run to her. "Katniss." I try to wake her up. When that doesn't work, I start to panic. I check her pulse but find nothing. I try to think back to the CPR class my dad made me take last year. How many chest compressions are you supposed to do? No wonder I never got my certification. But I can't just sit here and do nothing. So I start the chest compressions. Come on! I don't know what I'm going to do if she dies. It will be all my fault too. I'm the one who asked her to come along on this crazy adventure. I'm the one who decided to find another way out instead of telling her how I felt about her. I try to resuscitate her until I'm exhausted. I wipe at the tears streaming down my face. She's dead.

"This is all my fault!"I cry. "If I had told you when we were in the closet we wouldn't be in this mess… But I was too scared and… and now you're…" I can't finish that sentence. "And I never got to tell you I'm like, in love with you Katniss."

"Umm… Peeta?" I hear Katniss' voice. But Katniss didn't say that. She still lays unconscious on the ground. Am I hearing things? I turn to find Katniss standing there awkwardly. She scratches her arm.

"Katniss?" I blink rapidly. "But then who is-"

"Look out!" She shouts right before I'm tackled by Katniss, who must be the shapeshifter. It pretended it was dead so it could ponce and take my journal, but Katniss blew its cover. This is so confusing. Katniss lunges at the shapeshifter still disguised as Katniss and I watch the two Katniss's fight. Then I look down and find her bow and arrows on the ground a few feet away. I'm no good at archery, but maybe I can use one of her arrows to stab the shapeshifter. Okay. I grab an arrow and watch the fight… There's a huge problem though. I don't don't know which one is Katniss. They are both holding onto the journal and pulling at it like it's a game of tug o war.

"Whoever is the real Katniss…" I start. "Give me a sign." One Katniss winks at me while the other pretends to zip her lips, and I'm brought back the night we snuck into the abandoned Dusk til Dawn grocery store, the night Katniss promised not to tell her friends about the stupid dance I had to do to save everybody from the ghosts haunting the store. I'm sure I've found the right Katniss. So without further hesitation I stab the shapeshifter with the arrow. It screeches and switches between a bunch of different forms, dropping the journal. Katniss moves away from it. The shapeshifter pulls the arrow out but it's going to die. Nothing could survive a wound like that… I hope. The shapeshifter drops to the ground. I smile weakly at Katniss and we start to walk away. The shapeshifter starts laughing and we stop.

"You think you're so clever, don't you Peeta?" It asks. "But you have not idea what you're up against. You'll never find the author. And if you keep meddling in the paranormal activity in this town, you'll meet a fate worse than you could imagine. And this will be the last from you ever take." The shapeshifter transforms into me, only I look like an adult. Then the shapeshifter dies. I blink. I'm going to die at such a young age.

"The shapeshifter can't be telling the truth." Katniss says. "You're going to be alright."

"But… that's me."

"Don't worry about it too much." Katniss grabs my hand.

"But… Why did it change to an adult version of me?" I ask. "Why didn't it just turn into me now?"

"Because it wanted to get this reaction from you." She wraps her arms around me. "Peeta, you're going to be alright… I won't let that happen."

She guides me back to the metal closet and Delly lets us out once I tell her that Katniss knows what I was going to tell her. We leave thelab and Katniss asks Delly to give us a minute. So Delly goes back to the Mystery Shack. I think I know what this is about.

I sit down on a log. "Look, Katniss, about earlier…"I say. "In the heat of the moment… I might have said some dumb things, and… Can't we just pretend none of that ever happened?... Please."

"Hey, hey," says Katniss. "It's okay. I always kind of knew."

"Wait," I say. "You did?"

"Yeah, I mean, did you really think I was that oblivious?" She asks. I look down at my hands. "Listen, Peeta." Here comes the part I was afraid of. This is the part where she ends our friendship. "I'm like super flattered. But I'm too old for you… I mean, you know that, right?"

I sigh. "Delly said telling you would make me feel better."

"Well, how do you feel?"

"Anxious, scared," I say. "Kind of itchy."

"Dude," She laughs. "Don't be itchy. This summer was boring until you showed up. I have more fun with you than, like, practically anyone else. And if you ever stop being my friend I would throw myself into the bottomless pit." Does she really mean all this? "So things won't be awkward now? I just wrestled myself. That was awkward. If you can handle that monster, you can handle a little awkwardness. Right."

"Friends?" I ask.

"Yeah, friends." She smiles. "Oh, and Peeta. See you for movie night tomorrow. Your place this time, okay?"

"Okay."

Then she starts walking home and I'm left all alone. How can everything be so amazing and so terrible at the same time?

(Katniss' POV)

Peeta admitted his feelings for me! I'm glad he got it off his chest. Hopefully things can go back to normal now. It can't happen. A fifteen year old can't' date a twelve year old. It's just wrong. Even if it feels right… I like Peeta too. There, I admitted it to myself. Although, I can never tell Peeta. It's still wrong, even if we both really like each other.

I'm scared for Peeta. I'm worried that what the shapeshifter said might be true. That Peeta's going to die in his early twenties. At least, that's how old he looked. I promised Peeta I wouldn't let that happen, but can I really keep that promise? I'm going to try. I'd risk my life to save Peeta. I've done it before, and I'll do it again because Peeta is worth dying for.

 **Hey, guys sorry it took a while to update this story. I'm going to update a lot in the next two weeks. Tell me what you think of this chapter in the reviews. I always liked this episode of Gravity Falls so it was very fun to write.**


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Society of the Blind Eye

(Peeta's POV)

I still want to find out who the author is. There's so many questions I want to ask him. Yesterday when we went to that underground lab and Delly locked me and Katniss in the closet Delly found a laptop that must have belonged to the author. If we can get into it we might be able to find out who the author is, or at least get some clues. We invite Katniss and Finnick over to help. We spend hours trying to figure out the password, but it could be anything.

"Maybe the password is written on the computer somewhere," Delly says, closing the laptop and flipping it upside down, only to reveal a huge clue. Written in neat handwriting it reads 'Latier Labs'. Latier. Like Old Man Latier... Could he be the author? He has to be smarter that he acts, how would he be able to build the gobblewonker if he was intelligent? I think he could be the author.

"We should give Old Man Latier a visit," I say.

When we get to the junkyard he lives in we find him dancing around singing a happy little jig. When he notices us he stops. "What are you kids doing on my property?"

"Umm..." I start. "We wanted to ask you some questions."

"Oh, alright," He smiles. "Why don't you come into my humble abode," He motions for us to follow him into a small hut. When we get in he blinks at us. "Make it quick, I've got things to do,"

"Oh, okay." I clear my throat. "We found this... labtop and it has your name on it and so we were wondering if you knew anything about it."

"My memory ain't what they used to be, boy." He says sadly. "I don't even remember my childhood... or most of my adult life."

"Well," Katniss says. "What's the first thing you remember?"

He stops to think about it. "This." He pulls out a newspaper with him on the front page trying to eat a squirrel. I think he's standing in front of the museum.

"Maybe if we go there, it'll jog your memory," Finnick tells him.

"Worth a shot, I suppose. Not like I have anything better to do." Old Man Latier says. So we go to the museum and when that doesn't work, I pull out the journal and flip through the pages, maybe there's some sort of memory erasing monster in this town... I stop at a page with an eye with an 'x' through it and Old Man Latier freaks out, going off about the Society of the Blind Eye. I read the title of the page and sure enough, this page is about the Society of the Blind Eye.

They seem to be some sort of secret society dedicated to erasing the memories of paranormal activity from the residents of Panem Falls. I'm brought back to the conversation Katniss and I had about the adults not believing in the paranormal activity when it's everywhere in this town. Maybe the Society is erasing all the memories of these strange happenings.

"Maybe..." Katniss says. "Maybe we should go inside the museum."

"But it's closed," I shrug.

"So was the Dusk til Dawn," Katniss gives me a look. "Let's find a way in." So we sneak in and search for clues. Strange enough, there's a whole exhibit on eyes and every eye is looking in the same direction. That can't be a coincidence, so I find the eye that all the other eyes are looking at and push it. We gasp as a door opens up revealing a secret hallway. We walk down it and find an open door. Inside, Greasy Sae is strapped down in a chair and about eight figures stand around her. They're wearing cloaks to hide their identities. This must be the Society of the Blind Eye.

I shove everyone further down the hallway. I can't get caught by these guys. I've learned so much about this town. I can't let them erase my memories. Further down the hallway we find another door. This room is filled with bottles with notes inside them. Displayed in the middle of the room is Old Man Latier's bottle. This must hold his memories.

"That's my memories!" Old Man Latier shouts running over and picking the bottle up, triggering an alarm. He runs out before the Society of the Blind Eye appears. They capture us and bring us to the room Greasy Sae was tied up in. Only she's gone now. Old Man Latier must have escaped through because it's just me, Delly, Katniss and Finnick.

A man who must be the leader takes off his cloak. I don't recognize him. I'm sure I would know him if I saw him before. He has his beard styled in some kind of a crazy design. "Who are you?"

"My name is Seneca Crane," He says. "You don't know me. Nobody does."

That's when the rest of the members step forward, taking their cloaks off. I recognize the other seven members. I've seen them around town.

"Why are you erasing people's memories?" Delly asks.

"The population of Panem Falls was tormented by the supernatural things of this town." Says Seneca Crane. "They were so frightened they couldn't sleep at night. Our founder figured out a way to rid the townsfolk of their bad memories, and they now live in blissful ignorance."

"Why are you telling us all this?" Finnick asks.

"Because you won't remember any of this when we're done with you." He laughs. "I'm going to erase your summer."

"The whole summer?" Katniss says, her voice laced with panic. "Why not just today?"

"Why?" He asks. "Is there something, or rather... someone you'd like to remember?" He laughs mockingly. "Well too bad!" He raises his memory gun.

"Before we have our memories erased, I'd like to come out and say it." Finnick says. "I'm in love with Annie."

"I knew it," Delly says. "You need to tell her how you feel."

"I don't know." Finnick shakes his head. "I don't think I can."

"I have something to admit too," I say. "I'm not actually as smart as I pretend to be. I just use big words to make me sound better."

"I'm not carefree." Katniss says. "I'm like, constantly stressed out."

"I... I..." Delly says. "I used your toothbrush to brush Buttercup's teeth, Peeta."

"Wait, what?" I ask. But before I can further question Delly, Old Man Latier runs in with a memory gun and starts zapping members of the Society of the Blind Eye. Soon every last one of them has forgotten the society ever existed. Then we put Old Man Latier's memories on a screen and watch them.

A younger, more put together version of Old Man Latier appears on the screen. He looks scholarly. "Okay." The younger version says. "Beetee Latier here to... umm... test my latest machine. Um... Before I start... you should know why I'm doing this. Over the past year I've been helping... another scientist build a machine that was... supposed to help mankind. But something went wrong. I had to quit. I'm still so haunted by the memory of what happened." He smiles. "So I built this machine," He pulls out a memory gun. "To help me forget... Well, here he goes." He points the gun at his head and pulls the trigger. In later videos Latier created the Society of the Blind Eye in the hopes of helping others forget. He continues to erase his bad memories until his mind is completely deteriorated and he's gone insane.

After the screen goes blank we stand there for a moment. "I... I don't remember anything from the past thirty years." He says.

"I'm so sorry," I say. I can't imagine how he must feel right now.

"Don't be." He says. "I'm happy to regain my memories."

"So, you worked with the author?" I ask.

"I sure did," He laughs. "However, some of my memories are... blurry... I can't quite remember who the author is... I'm sure they'll come back in time."

"That's alright," I say with a smile. "I'm just glad I could help you."

"I might be able to help you get into that computer, though." He says. "I used to build them back in the day."

"That would be so great." So I bring Beetee to the attic of the Mystery Shack. He logs into the laptop in less than five minutes. Then he looks worried. "What's wrong?"

"It's happening!" He screeches. "How is that possible? I was promised the machine would be destroyed!" I look at the computer and find a countdown on the screen set for 24 hours.

"What do you mean?" I asks. "What's happening?"

"The machine I worked on was started up!" He's scaring me. "The portal's going to be opened up!"

"What does that mean?" I ask.

"It means the end times are coming."

(Grunkle Mitch's POV)

I finally got the portal working! After thirty years working countless hours down in the basement every night. Thirty years in this dumb town. The journal says starting this machine up is extremely dangerous, but I don't care. After all this time everything is going to change... Tomorrow.

 **I hope you guys liked this chapter, I really enjoyed writing it, although the next two chapters were some of most favorite to write. Anyway, have a great day.**


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Not What He Seems

(Grunkle Mitch's POV)

Twenty four hours. That's how long I have to wait until the portal opens and everything changes. I set a timer on my watch so I can get back here in time for this life changing moment. I move to my desk where the journals sit. I made a copy of journal number three and gave the original back to Peeta. I figured I wouldn't need the writing in invisible ink to start the machine up. And I didn't want to make the kids suspicious of me. I love those kids.

Flipping journal number one open to the page about the machine. It reads, 'one side effect of the machine being turned on is temporary gravity anomalies.' Things will be flying all over the place when the portal opens. Probably won't be safe for the kids to be here when it happens. Maybe I can get Finnick or Katniss to distract them for me.

(Peeta's POV)

Today's a great day. Delly and I spend hours on the roof with Grunkle Mitch lighting illegal fireworks. But I feel like something's off with Grunkle Mitch, he's acting like something's on his mind. He finally stops to talk to us.

"Hey kids," He starts. "I… um… A lot of things are going to change today. You're uh… going to hear a lot of bad things about me… But I want you to know that I love you." What's that supposed to mean? I wonder right before alarms go off. There are agents everywhere. They handcuff Grunkle Mitch before i can even ask what's going on.

"Why are you arresting him?" Delly asks.

"Last night an unknown person stole toxic chemicals from a lab. We suspect your uncle did this." One agent says as he guides our Grunkle to a cop car. "We're sending you two to child services." He shoves Mitch into the car.

"Remember what I told you, kids." Grunkle Mitch calls before the car door slams shut. My Great Uncle couldn't have done this. Sure he occasionally shoplifts from the grocery store but he's not a mastermind criminal.

I pull Delly aside so the cops can't hear us. "We've got to clear Mitch's name." I whisper. "There's no way he stole toxic chemicals."

"Follow me." Delly says then swiftly runs into the woods and ducks into a bush. I check to make sure no one's watching and follow her. We wait for the perfect moment and sneak back into the Mystery Shack.

(Grunkle Mitch's POV)

They bring me to the police station and bring me right to the interrogation room. I refuse to say anything until I get my phone call. I need to make sure those agents don't find the lab while I'm gone. So I call Finnick.

"Mitchell?" He says. "I heard you got arrested."

"Yeah, but don't worry about me… Let's just say, it's not the first time I've been in this situation." I say. "I need you to do something for me, it's very important." I know I can trust Finnick. He's always been like family.

"Anything for you,"

"Okay." I breath a sigh of relief. "I need you and Katniss to sneak into the Mystery Shack and guard the vending machine with your lives."

"Why? Do you think the agents are going to steal some of your snacks?"

I smirk. "I'll explain everything when I get out of here, but I need you to go. Now."

(Peeta's POV)

We break into Grunkle Mitch's office. It's off limits, but I don't think he'll mind us being here if we can clear his name. We dig through his drawers, finally coming upon the security tape from last night. Sure enough, Grunkle Mitch was in the Mystery Shack restocking the shelves. I get excited- that is until my Grunkle leaves the shack. I fast forward through two hours worth of footage until he comes back in wearing a full hazmat suit, wheeling buckets of toxic chemicals through the shack.

"Why, Grunkle Mitch?" I ask. I don't want him to be thrown in jail. There's gotta be something in hear that can save him. I open a crest and find at least a dozen fake I.D.s and passports. Then at the bottom of the crate, I find a newspaper with the headline 'Mitch Mellark Dead'. Another clipping has a picture of Mitch and calls him an unnamed grifter. "He isn't our uncle." I say.

"Then… who is he?" Delly asks.

"I… I don't know." I feel betrayed. How could this guy pretend to be our Great Uncle all summer long? He said he loved us, but then why did he lie to us? I want to believe that this is all some misunderstanding but I'm not stupid. The journal told me there was no one in Panem Falls I could trust, but I just thought… Mitch was family. But he lied to everyone.

Delly find a piece of paper with a combination drawn on. She recognizes it as the vending machine combination. Could there possibly be more he's hiding from us?

(Grunkle Mitch's POV)

I've got twenty minutes. Twenty minutes left until the portal opens. I've got to be there when it happens. The journal said that gravity anomalies would be a side effect of the portal opening. Hopefully they'll be strong enough for me to use to my advantage. I wait ten minutes until the gravity anomalies finally begin. The agents float up into the air, they're caught off guard. Perfect. I kick off the wall and float across the room grabbing the keys off an agent as I pass them. I get the door open just before the anomaly ends and the agents land roughly on the ground. I slam the door shut, lock it and dash out of the police station.

I find a taxi driver and give him one hundred dollars to drive as far away from the Mystery Shack as possible and I ask him not to stop when the cops chase him. Then I run behind another car as the cops run out of the station. Like the idiots they are, they chase after the taxi driver and I have eight minutes to run back to the Mystery Shack before the portal opens.

(Peeta's POV)

The remaining Government agents take off in a hurry. Something must be going on down at the station. Which means we probably don't have much time before the man pretending to be our uncle gets back. We find Finnick and Katniss in front of the vending machine. They must have been sent to guard it. "Finnick, Katniss," I say. "Please let us get to the vending machine. Something terrible is going on!"

"And you need comfort food?" Finnick asks. "We can't move. Mitchell told us guard it with our lives."

"Oh, yeah?" I show the newspaper articles to him. "He may not even be Mitchell Mellark."

"Dude, where'd you find that?" Katniss asks.

"His office." I say. "He's hiding something in that vending machine."

Finnick and Katniss move aside and I put the combination in. The vending machine moves aside to reveal a secret bunker, sort of like the one we found under the metal tree during the whole shapeshifter fiasco. We go down and find a lab. Sitting on a desk next to a framed picture of me and Delly are three journals. One of them is my journal number three, the other two look identical only they have a '1' and '2' written on the six fingered hand of the cover.

I pull my journal number three out and compare it to the one on the desk. He must have made a copy of it, I decide. I'm angry at him. So, so, so angry at him for lying to me all summer. But then again, he might not even be family. I open each journal to the last page of every book. A design is drawn onto these pages and they look like they would match up. I push them together and the lines match up perfectly to form a blueprint for a machine. So I look up and find a real life version of the machine a few feet ahead. This must be the machine Beetee worked on. The one he warned me would start doomsday if it was activated. I pull a black light out and shine it on the journals. On journal number one, the author says, 'If machine is activated, our universe could be destroyed!' I've got to turn this thing off.

(Delly's POV)

Peeta's about to to push the button to turn off the machine when Grunkle Mitch, or whoever he is runs in. "No, Peeta!" He shouts. "Please don't do it!"

"Why should I listen to you?" Peeta crosses his arms angrily.

"Because I'm your Grunkle," He blinks. "I would never do anything I thought would hurt you kids."

"You're not our Grunkle, he died!" Peeta pulls out the newspaper clippings.

"Oh, kid, where did you find-" He's interrupted when we begin to float. Peeta floats away from the button so I kick off a wall and grab onto the counter by the button. Everyone else floats around aimlessly. "Hold onto something!"

"Delly push the button!" Peeta calls. "There's only one minute left."

"Please don't do it Delly!" Grunkle Mitch begs. "I've spent thirty years trying to start this machine up."

"Grunkle Mitch," Peeta calls. "The machine might destroy our universe. Nothing is worth that risk!"

"One thing is." Grunkle Mitch says. "Family. I've been doing all this for the good of the family. Delly, you don't really think I'm a bad guy, do you?"

Can I really trust him? He's lied about so many things. But I can't help but feel like he's telling the truth. I know he loves us. He wouldn't be doing this if we could get hurt. So I make my decision and let go of the counter and float into the air away from the button.

"I trust you." I say.

He smiles and kicks over to grab me and Peeta. Then we're pushed back against the wall by the power coming out of the machine. But I trust my Grunkle. Everything's going to be alright.

Blinding light flashes out of the machine, and I have to close my eyes until the light fades. Then a silhouette of a man appears in the portal and he steps into the room. Then the portal door closes and we fall to the ground. I watch as the man places his hand on the cover of one of the journals. It matches the hand perfectly. This guy has six fingers. He then picks the journal up, tucking it into his coat pocket.

"Who is that?" Peeta asks.

"The author of the journals," Grunkle Mitch says, and the man takes his hood off revealing his face… His face is an exact copy of Grunkle Mitch's face. "My brother."

 **Hey guys! I hope you guys liked this chapter. I actually decided to do a double upload for these two chapters because I didn't want you guys to wait because that was such a big cliffhanger, especially if you haven't watched Gravity Falls. Chapter 14 is out now!**


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

A Tale Of Two Brothers

(Haymitch's POV)

"Who is that?" Peeta asks.

"The author of the journals," I reply and watch as he pulls the hood off revealing the face I've longed to look at for thirty years. "My brother." I run to hug him him but when I get close he punches me in the face. I blink at him. "What was that for?"

"For opening that portal!" He shouts.

"So you're really not going to thank me," I say in disbelief.

"Thank you?" He throws his arms in the air. "It's your fault I even ended up in that portal!"

"I spent thirty years trying to get you out!"

"You took a huge risk today," He crosses his arms. "Didn't you read my warnings in the journals."

"You were worth the risk to me."

"Worth the destruction of the planet?" He laughs mockingly. "I don't think so."

"What's going on?" Delly asks. I got so caught up in this argument I forgot the kids were even down here.

"What are these kids doing in my lab?" My brother asks.

"These two are Marcus' grand kids," I shrug. "And the other two are my employees."

"I have a niece and nephew?" He asks in surprise.

"Hey Mitchell," Finnick interrupts this moment. "Would you like for me and Katniss to head out?"

"No, no," I shrug. "You both deserve to-" I'm cut off by my brother.

"You stole my name?"

I wince. "I had to-" I start.

"You stole my name, Haymitch!"

"Haymitch?" The kids ask at the same time.

"Yes," I sign. "My real name is Haymitch Mellark. Let me explain everything."

"This better be good." Mitchell says bitterly.

"It will be," I smirk and start my story. "Mitchell and I are twins. We were born in New Jersey during the sixties. Our parents owned a pawn shop and mother was a phone 'psychic' on the side. When we were kids, me and Mitchell loved exploring the beach. One day, we found this cave with this old abandoned ship inside. We wanted to fix it up and sail around the world together. Mitchell was bullied a lot, as if his abnormally high IQ wasn't enough, he also had a rare birth defect. Six fingers on each hand, which might have explained his obsession with sci-fi mystery weirdness. And I was bullied for being a dumber version of my brother. Those bullies may have been right about us. We were complete losers. But when push comes to shove, you only really need one friend." I get so caught up in my storytelling it's like I'm reliving these events all over again.

It was during our final year of high school when our family fell apart. Me and my brother were always complete opposites, but I'd always thought he'd be by my side forever. Our school had a science fair and invited some really nice collages to attend. If any of us impressed the collages, they would be offered a scholarship. I didn't take my project very seriously. I attempted to build a machine that could throw a football, but I never could get it to work. I got the credit for trying though. That's all that I cared about. My brother built a perpetual motion machine. A machine that would never stop moving. His dream college was very interested in seeing it. That scared me. If Mitchell got accepted into his dream college, he would leave me for sure. And then what about our childhood dream of sailing around the world? We spent most of our lives fixing up that old ship we found. What about that?

"Mitchell," I said on the way home the night before the science fair. "You're not going to leave me if that snooty college accepts you... Are you?"

"Haymitch," He looked at me from the corner of his eye. "It's my dream school."

That was that, then. My brother would get accepted and leave me behind. "Oh," I frown. "Well, if by chance you don't get accepted will you sail around the world with me?"

"Yes, Haymitch." He shrugs.

"Alright." I run my fingers through my hair. "I'm... I'm going to head back to the science fair... Try to get my machine working. Maybe they'll accept me too."

He grinned. He must have known I couldn't start that machine. But he slapped my back playfully anyway. "Maybe they will."

I went back to the gym and watched my brother's machine. It was like it was mocking me. This machine would take my brother away from me. I just knew it. This made me so upset I started punching the table the machine sat on. But I broke it accidentally. I ruined my brother's chance of getting into his dream school in just a few seconds. I tried to fix it but I couldn't. I meant to tell him what happened but I was scared he'd think I did it on purpose. So I didn't tell him. And the college didn't accept my brother...

Lather that day, Mitchell confronted me about it. "Last night," He said. "You weren't working on your machine."

"No." I swallowed. "I didn't mean to break it-"

"Are you kidding me!" He shouted. "You broke it on purpose so I wouldn't get accepted to my dream school, and I'd be stuck in this dumb town forever!"

"How could you say that?"

"You ruined my future, Haymitch!" My parents heard him says that and ran upstairs, our baby brother, Marcus in mother's arms.

"What do you mean he ruined your future?" Father asked between clenched teeth.

"Haymitch broke my science project on purpose and now I can't get into my dream school." Mitchell explained.

"It was an accident, I swear." I start.

"You cost us potential millions." Fathers said. "I want you to leave. You're not welcome here until you make us millions."

I stared at him in disbelief. He took my arm and dragged me out of the house. I called out for Mitchell, but all he did was watch.

So I left town. I started selling products but my customers thought they were a scam. I got banned from sixteen states and a few countries. That's why I have all those fake I. D.s. Things weren't looking good for me, but I was determined to make millions.

(Mitchell's POV)

"But wait, what about you," My nephew asks me. "Did you end up going to your dream collage?"

"Not exactly." I say. "I got into a collage nobody wanted as their first choice. At a place like that I had to work twice as hard. Luckily that's what I do best. I went from undergrad to PhD three years ahead of schedule. I wrote a thesis that was nationally ranked, and was awarded an enormous grant for my own scientific research. I wasn't sure what to research until I got to thinking about anomalies. According to my investigations, there was one place with a higher concentration of things that were odd, unusual, and statistically improbable. I was led to Panem Falls, Oregon. The first day I got here, I witnessed paranormal activity. I began to keep a journal."

My nephew shrikes then tries to cover up his excitement. "Sorry, I just got excited... about the journals."

I smile. I like this kid. " I began to keep a journal." I continue. "There was finally a place where I felt at home, but something nagged at me. I wanted to know where the anomalies were coming from. I eventually came to the conclusion that the weirdness must be leaking into our world from a different dimension. I realized the only way to understand Panem Falls would be to build a gateway, a portal to the source of it's weirdness.

I couldn't do it alone. I called up my college buddy, Beetee Latier, a young, brilliant mechanic who was wasting his talent building personal computers. We spent many long nights down here perfecting the machine. It was going to be the crowning achievement of my studies, an answer to the source of the towns anomalies. The time had come to test it. But something went wrong." I said.

The portal was so strong it sucked Beetee into it, luckily his foot had been tangled in a rope and I was able to pull him to safety. He came out speaking some kind of gibberish, when I calmed him down somewhat, he warned me. 'When Panem Falls and Earth becomes sky, fear the beast with just one eye.' And I'd known what he meant. A week later Beetee returned and urged me to shut the machine down. He was so traumatized by what he'd seen. He said my machine would bring about the end times. I couldn't destroy my life work. I told him I didn't need his help and I could do it myself.

"I was in over my head. I feared I was losing my sanity. I needed help. Someone I could trust. I contacted Haymitch and asked him to come to Panem Falls to meet with me."

(Haymitch's POV)

Mitchell looks at me for a few moments so I pick up where he left off. "Alright." I say. "Now you're Grunkle wasn't doing too well economically so I figured I'd visit Mitchell." But as I talk about the worst day of my life I get caught up in the memory.

I knocked on his front door and Mitchell immediately swung the door open. "Who is it?" He asked. "Have you come to steal my eyes?"

I blinked. "Well, I can always count on you for a warm welcome."

"Haymitch. Did anyone follow you?"

"Hello to you too, pal."

"Sorry," He shrugs. "I just had to make sure- uh, never mind."

I could tell something was off. My brother was always calm, cool, and collected. "Hey, are you going to tell me what's going on?" I asked.

"I've made huge mistakes, I don't know who I can trust anymore." He was freaking me out. After all these years, I still loved my brother.

"Hey, easy there." I tried to calm him down. "Let's talk about this."

"Okay, there's something I want to show you. Something you won't believe." He took me down to his secret lab and showed me the portal. "It's a trans-universal gateway, a punched hole through a weak spot in our dimension. I created it to unlock the mysteries of the universe. But it can easily be harnessed for terrible destruction! That's why I shut it down and hid my journals. There's only one left. You're the only person I can trust to take it. I have something to ask you. Remember our plans to sail around the world on a boat... "Take this book, get on a boat, and sail as far away as you can. Bury it where no one can ever find it."

I felt betrayed. "That's it? You finally want to see me after ten years, and it's to tell me to get as far away from you as possible?"

"Haymitch, you don't know what I'm up against."

"You think you've got problems!" I said. "I've been to prison in three different countries. I had to chew my ways out of the trunk of a car once, and to top all that off, I've got a freakin mullet, Mitchell!"

"I'll agree, Haymitch. That hairstyle was a huge mistake, but you really don't have it as bad as I do. Trust me." Mitchell says.

"You've got it worse?" I exclaim. "Look at where you are! Living up in your fancy house, selfishly hoarding your college money because you only care about yourself!"

"I'm selfish?" He asked. "How can you say that after costing me my dream school?"

"You want me to get rid of this book?" I ripped it from his hand. "Fine, I'll do it right now." I pulled out my lighter but he stopped me.

"My research, Haymitch!" We fought over the journal.

"You left me behind, you jerk!" I shouted. "It was supposed to be us forever! You ruined my life!"

He pushed me. "You ruined your own life, Haymitch!" I fell against something and it burned my back, making me cry out in pain. Mitchell rushed to my side. "Oh, my gosh! I'm sorry!" So he doesn't care about the emotional pain he's caused me, but he cares about the physical pain?

I punched his jaw. "Some brother you turned out to be. You care more about your dumb mysteries than your family." I pushed him and he started floating toward the portal that somehow got turned on during our fight. "Hey, what's going on? Mitchell?"

"Haymitch! Help me!" He screamed getting closer to the portal. "Haymitch! Do something!"

"I... I... how do you turn it off?

"Haymitch!" He tossed his journal toward me and disappeared into the portal. Then the power went out, shutting the portal down.

"Mitchell!" I shouted into the darkness. "Mitchell, come back!"

I come back from the flashback but continue my story. "I lost him. I didn't know if he was dead or alive in some distant galaxy. But I knew the answers to getting him back must be in his journals. I tried for weeks to turn the dumb machine back on but without the other two journals, it was hopeless." I say. "I eventually ran out of food and had to go into town. Everyone was curious about me because they thought I was my brother. I started giving tours during the day so I could pay the bills. And thus, the Murder Hut was born, later renamed the Mystery Shack. I finally found something I was good at, for once, being a liar and a cheat payed off."

Peeta laughs. "I still don't know why you get any customers!"

"The tourists love me." I smirk. "But back to my story. The old me was dead. I faked a car crash to prove it. By day I was Mitchell Mellark. But my night, I was down in this basement trying to bring the real Mitchell back. I couldn't risk anyone learning the truth. So I lied to everyone. The town, my family, your parents. Even you kids."

(Peeta's POV)

It all makes sense now. "I'm sorry I didn't believe you." I say.

"It's okay, Peeta... I probably wouldn't have believed me either."

That's when we hear the government agents upstairs. Crap. I completely forgot about them.

"Who's in my house?" Mitchell asks.

"Government men,"

"We need to get them out!" Mitchell says. "I have so many things down here they can't find out about!"

I dig in my pockets and pull out Beetee's memory gun. I didn't even know I took it from the Society of the Blind Eye. "What about this?"

"I don't know how you got one of those, but it's perfect," Mitchell erase the government agents memory of this mission and they head out very confused.

I have so many questions to ask Mitchell, but Grunkle Haymitch makes us go to bed and has Finnick and Katniss leave. Grunkle Haymitch and Mitchell start talking in the hallway, so Delly and I go the door to eavesdrop.

(Haymitch's POV)

"Look, Haymitch," Mitchell says. "You and the kids can stay here for the rest of the summer. But after that, I need you to give me my house back, my name back, and close the Mystery Shack for good."

I can't believe he still won't thank me for getting him out of the portal. "Fine," I agree. "Under one condition. You stay away from those kids, I don't want them in danger, because as far as I'm concerned they're the only family I have left."

(Delly's POV)

Today has really freaked me out. "Hey Peeta... You don't think we'll end up like them, do you?"

"What... What do you mean?" Peeta asks.

"I mean they used to be best friends until they got all... stupid." I say. "Can you promise me you won't get stupid?"

"Not stupider than you."

I laugh. "Good night stupid." I turn off the light and Peeta rolls over and falls asleep. But I can't sleep. Instead I lie awake imagining a world where me and Peeta aren't friends.

 **So this was a double upload today because I didn't want to leave you hanging. I'll explain some things if they were kind of confusing. Grunkle Mitch is actually Haymitch, he's just been using his brother's identity. The real Mitchell Mellark has been trapped in another dimension for about thirty years. This was definitely my favorite chapter to write because this moment is the most important part of Gravity Falls because so many things start to make sense. I hope you guys liked chapters 13 and 14 have a great day.**


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

The Last Dellycorn

(Mitchell's POV)

I'm standing in in a wheat field. I look around and see the swing set from my childhood, the boat Haymitch and I fixed up, and my portal. That's when the laughing starts. So familiar. I know exactly who it belongs to.

"Well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well!" Bill Cipher appears. "Aren't you a sight for sore eye. Mitchell Mellark, my old pal."

"Bill Cipher." I say through gritted teeth. "What do you want from me?"

"Oh, quit playing dumb, IQ." He moves closer. "You knew I'd be back. Do you honestly think shutting down that portal can stop what I have planned? I've been making deal, chatting with old friends, preparing for the big day. You can't keep that rift safe forever. You'll slip and when you do-" Bill snaps his fingers opening my portal and the sky gets dark.

"Get out of here!" I scream. "You have no dominion in our world!"

"Maybe not now, but things change. Mitchell Mellark. Things change!"

That's when I wake up from my nightmare. I know better than to brush this off. Bill still has hope. Which also means our world isn't safe. I have to warn my family. I think of my niece and nephew. He's coming.

(Peeta's POV)

Great Uncle Mitchell wakes all of us up bright and early for some weird kind of meeting. Grunkle Haymitch wasn't pleased about that.

"Okay," Mitchell says. "Do any of you recognize this symbol?" He holds up a drawing of a triangle with an eye, arms, and legs.

"Bill." I say immediately.

"You know him?" He questions.

"We had to save Haymitch from him."

"Why... was he after Haymitch?"

"He went into his head to get the combination to the safe he keeps the deed to the Mystery Shack in."

"He tried take the shack..." Mitchell trails off. "The fact that you've dealt with Bill is gravely serious."

"You know Bill?"

"I've dealt with many dark beings in my time."

"There was a triangle demon in my mind, and you kids didn't bother telling me?" Grunkle Haymitch crosses his arms.

"Things got chaotic after that... Cato took over." Delly shrugs.

"Anyway," Mitchell says. "Bill is growing more and more powerful. We need to shield the shack from Bill. In order to do that we're going to need unicorn hair."

"Unicorn hair!" Haymitch says. "Lame. I'm out."

"In my first journal, I did a page on unicorns. Unicorns reside in an enchanted glade and they will only give their hair to someone pure of heart." Mitchell says.

"I'll go!" Delly insists. "I love unicorns!"

"Very well," He gives Delly journal one and a crossbow and she skips out of the Mystery Shack.

"You gave her a crossbow..." I say.

"Isn't that legal in this dimension?"

"Not really."

"Oh..." He shrugs. "Why don't' you come down to my study in the second level of the basement. Haymitch doesn't even know about it."

"Alright."

"If Delly can't get the unicorn hair, we'll need to block our minds from Bill, I used a metal plate, but we unfortunately don't have the time to do that to you kids."

(Delly's POV)

I invited Katniss and Annie to come along, but Finnick finally asked Annie out on a date so it's just me and Katniss.

We walk almost an hour until we reach the magical clearing. I pull the journal out and read aloud. "To reveal the unicorn glade, one must utter a deepest chant bellowed by ancient druids." I scratch my head. "What does that mean?"

"Let me see," I hand the book to Katniss and she studies if for a minute. "Okay. You have to recite this here chant in a deep voice."

"I can't do a deep voice."

"Okay..." Katniss looks around. "Well, me and Peeta do impressions of your Grunkle Haymitch for fun. Mine's spot on... You think Haymitch's voice is deep enough?"

"Worth a try," I shrug.

So Katniss starts chanting and it sounds just like Haymitch. It's so majestic. The glade appears when Katniss finishes her chant. All my life I've dreamed of meeting unicorn. My dreams will finally come true today. We step in and find the beautiful pink unicorn.

"Greetings visitors," She says.

"What's is your name?"

"Celestabellebethabell, last of my kind," She flips her main majestically. "What brings you to my side of the forest?"

"I need a lock of your hair to protect my family."

She laughs. "Why would I give you a lock of my hair? You're not pure of heart. Neither of you are."

I frown. "Well, I do tease Peeta a lot. Katniss leads me out of the glade. "I've been slacking off in the goodness department. I'm leaving this glade and I'm not coming back until I've done 1,000 good deeds!"

(Peeta's POV)

Great Uncle Mitchell places a helmet on my head that is supposed to read my mind. "So what is Bill exactly?"

"Nobody knows for sure." He says. "But he's older that our galaxy and far more twisted. Bill comes from an alternate dimension known as the Nightmare Realm. He doesn't have a physical form on Earth. He is limited to interacting with people through the mindscape. I was mad at your Grunkle because when he opened the portal, some of it was left behind. I've contained the rift. But if Bill gets his hands on it, he can use it to open a portal straight to Earth.

"You know a lot about Bill... What's your history with him?"

He turns away. "You need to focus on the machine right now. My history with Bill isn't important."

(Katniss' POV)

When Delly has finished 1,000 deeds we go back to find Celestabellebethabell, but the stupid unicorn says she's still not pure of heart because doing good deeds to make yourself look better doesn't make you pure. And then she has the nerve to call Delly a bad person. Delly runs away crying. I'm pissed. I work for Haymitch Abernathy. I know I scam when I see one. Delly is the nicest person I know.

When I was twelve I lost my baby sister and my mother in the same day. Delly is everything I would've wanted my sister to be like. I'm going to get that unicorn hair. The nice way failed, now I'm going to do it the Katniss way.

I have Delly pick flowers so I can get to work. I find a gnome tavern, sneak and and ask if anyone knows how to knock out a unicorn. One gnome tells me I'll give me some if I give him some butterflies. Butterfly trafficking is illegal in these woods though. So I give him some butterflies and once he gives me the bag of fairy dust, I turn him over to the woodland cops.

I sneak back into the unicorn glade and throw the bag of fairy dust at Celestabellebethabell. Then I take my scissors out and grab a handful of her hair. "Katniss, you can't do that!" Delly says. Crap, all that work can't be for nothing.

"Delly, your family need this hair to protect the shack from Bill." I try to reason with her.

"We can't just steal the hair." Delly takes the scissors as Celestabellebethabell wakes up.

"You were going to cut my hair!" She screeches. "You'll never _ever_ be pure of heart!"

"Yo! C-Beth!" Two male unicorns walk into the glade. "You're not doing that pure of heart scam again, are you?"

"Scam?" Delly says. I sigh. I knew we were being scammed.

"Alright, you caught me." She whips her mane. "Us unicorns have more hair than we know what to do with, and we keep it to ourselves just to tick humans off!"

"All this time," Delly says. "I thought I was a bad person. But you're ever worse than I am!"

"What are you going to do about it? Huh? Huh?" She taunts. "What are you going to do?"

Delly punches Celestabellebethabell in the nose, and I swear I've never been prouder. I prepare myself to fight. These unicorns are going down.

(Peeta's POV)

I'm hooked up to the machine. It's recording all my thoughts so I do my best not to think about my crush on Katniss. Instead, I think about Star Wars. Mitchell is asleep at his desk. It really bothers me that he won't tell me about his history with Bill. So I take the helmet off and place it on his head.

Bill and Mitchell appear on a screen. Mitchell is a lot younger. "Then it's a deal." Bill says. "Just plug me into your mind, Mitchell. Please call me a friend." A friend? I step away from Mitchell. Bill and Mitchell-

"You shouldn't have done that," Mitchell says. He takes the helmet off and throws it across the room. It knocks a cloth down, exposing posters and sculptures of Bill. Oh, no. I grab the rift and shield it with my body. Bill can't get to this. "Give that back." I look around and find the memory gun. I grab it and shoot it at him. But it bounces off his glasses, hitting the machine that was reading my thoughts. Mitchell picks me up. "Look into my eyes, It's me."

So I look into his eyes. They don't look like Bill's eye. That's how you can tell if someone's being possessed by Bill or not. I read about it in journal 2. Okay. "I'm... I'm so sorry I didn't trust you."

"It's okay Peeta. Besides, my mind can't be erased." He knocks on his head, reminding me he has a metal plate protecting his mind. "I was a fool to hide all of this from you. I wanted to prepare you for Bill's tricks because he tricked me when I was younger. Trusting him is my biggest regret in life. Bill wasn't always my enemy, Peeta, in fact I used to consider him my friend. Long ago."

"You're friend?"

He nods and brings me to a seat. "I hit a roadblock in my investigations of Panem Falls. Until I found ancient writing in a cave about a being with answers. It warned me not to summon him, but I was desperate." He explains. "When I read the incantation I fell asleep and Bill appeared to me in a dream. He said he was a muse and picked a mind a century to inspire. We made a deal so he would have full access to my mind. Beetee Latier was weary when he found out Bill had been helping me. But I trust Bill. He said this was how genius happened, with a little help from a friend. I thought I was on the verge of my greatest achievement... Until my partner got a glimpse of Bill's plans."

"That's what Old Man Lat- I mean Beetee saw?" I ask. "That made him want to forget?"

"Yes." He says. "After that Bill admitted his real plans for the portal. It would act as a gateway between the Nightmare Realm and our dimension. I planned to shut the portal down for good. But Bill told me I couldn't stop what had already been started. I destroyed the portal last night, but the rift is the next best thing for Bill to enter through. It would mean the end of Panem Falls and the world."

We head back to the kitchen of the Mystery Shack. "I'll do anything to stop Bill." I tell him.

"Well, the machine is broke. We can't Bill proof your minds. And unicorns are impossible to deal with." Mitchell says. "We'll have to find another way."

Then Delly and Katniss walk in, beat up and covered in some kind of rainbow liquid. "What happened?" I jump up to help the girls into chairs.

"We fought three unicorns off with our bare hands." Katniss explains.

"We got the unicorn hair." Delly pulls it out. "And... lots of unicorn blood."

"Did you kill the unicorns?" I ask. Delly and Katniss share a nervous glance that answers my question.

"If you had met a unicorn, you'd know why we had to do it," Katniss finally shrugs.

"Well, you've protected your family, Delly." Mitchell says. "You're a good person."

"Thanks uncle Mitchell." Delly says. "But today I learned that morality is relative."

(Bill's POV)

I watch as the Mellark family places the unicorn hair around the house. "There," Mitchell says. "As long as we're inside, we're safe from Bill."

"I guess I can't possess anyone inside the shack." I say to myself. "So I'll just have to find my next pawn on the outside."

 **Hey guys, I hope you guys liked this chapter. Things are about to get really crazy in this story. Please tell me what you thought of this chapter in the reviews.**


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Peeta and Delly vs the Future

(Peeta's POV)

I wake up and find Delly's face hovering over mine. "Peeta!" She exclaims. "Our thirteenth birthday is only a week away!" I look over at our calendar. She's right. Today is August twenty fourth. Our birthdays is on the last day of summer, which is kind of a bummer, but we're both really excited because we'll finally technically be teenagers!

We run down stairs to work on party planning but Grunkle Haymitch stops us when he realizes what we're doing. "You can't have a party here." He crosses his arms. "I"m still finding bits of the undead in the couch cushions from your last party."

"Alright, we'll just have to find another location." Delly sighs.

"You could throw the party at the school gym." Finnick suggests.

"That's a great idea!" Delly says.

"Peeta!" Great uncle Mitchell calls right as we're about to head over to the school. "I need your help, it's an emergency!"

Delly smiles. "We'll go ahead. You should stay with Mitchell."

"Okay, if you're sure." I say and run to his room. "What's happening?" I ask when I get to his room.

"The rift is cracking." He says grimly. "Bill will unravel reality if he can get his hands on the rift. He will start a chain of catalyst events. Some people call it the oddpocalypse, but I prefer the term weirdmageddon."

(Delly's POV)

In the high school parking lot we find Darius and Tom rearranging the letters on a welcome sign. When we get in the gym, we find a line of sad teenagers. Katniss stands in line, still recovering from our unicorn fight the other day.

"Hi guys," She says in a sad voice.

"Hi Katniss," I smile. "What's all this?" I motion to the line.

"High school registration," She sighs.

"High school!" This makes me excited. "How would you describe your high school experience? Comedy? Or Hallmark movie? "

"More like horror movie." She says to my surprise. "TV lied to you about high school. It sucks. And if you can avoid doing it, you should!"

"What's wrong with high school?"

"The other students," She whispers. "They feed on your emotional pain."

"Katniss Neverclean." The man at the front desk calls into a microphone. "I mean Everdeen." All the other students start laughing at Katniss, even Gale. Katniss turns bright red. "You see what I mean?... Why are you here?"

"I… uh… wanted to see if we could have our thirteenth birthday party here," I explain.

"I'll ask for you," Katniss says. "I'm next anyway."

When we leave the gym, I pull out my walkie talkie, I want to try to contact Peeta. "Peeta, we can have our party at the gym." I say. "But, umm… high school doesn't seem like it's going to be as promising as we thought." Peeta isn't able to respond. My heart sinks. Today is a bad day. Finnick suggests we hand out the invitations I made when I was recovering from my unicorn wounds. But when we leave the letters have been changed on the front sign so they say 'No escape'. I can't believe in twenty minutes I went from being excited about starting high school to dreading it.

(Peeta's POV)

Mitchell brings me to a large hill overlooking the floating cliffs, one of Panem Falls' most prominent landmarks. I head Delly's message on the walkie talkie but I don't have time to respond. This mission is too important.

"Have you ever noticed the strange shape the cliffs make?" Mitchell asks.

"No." I squint at the cliffs then he pulls out a keychain and dangles the spaceship decor and it fits perfectly in the hole the cliffs make.

"This valley was created millions of years ago, when a spaceship crash landed in the area, creating the shape of the cliffs." He explains. "The spacecraft is buried under the town. I used to raid the craft for parts for my portal."

"So there's nothing… living down there anymore?" I question.

"Yep." He nods. "All the aliens are… probably long dead." He opens a hatch using a magnet gun he invented. It uses magnetism to interact with metallic objects. We go down into the ground. I'm so excited! Extraterrestrial life has been confirmed! "There's an adhesive down here strong enough to seal the cracking rift." He uses his magnet gun to slide down metal columns. I hesitate but follow him down deeper into the dark abyss under Panem Falls.

(Delly's POV)

My friends can't come to the party. They're off to music camp. I'm so sad. Everything I've been looking forward to is fading away. I try to contact Peeta but there's no signal.

(Peeta's POV)

We search for the adhesive. It's gotta be down here somewhere. Aliens are real. They were really here! I pull my camera out and take a picture with a rotting alien corpse. I can't wait to show Delly! She's going to be so excited about this!

"You know, Peeta." Mitchell says. "I've been thinking… when summer's over I'd like you to stay here with me. I want you as my apprentice.

"But… what about Delly?" I ask. I can't leave her.

"I have no doubt Delly will be fine on her own." Mitchell says. "I once watched her become friends with the pizza guy in the minute he was at our door." That's true. Delly makes friends very quickly. I mean, she managed to get a boyfriend the first week she was here. Sure, he turned out to be a bunch of gnomes, but he was still a boyfriend… Kind of

I step in a gooey surface. "Is this the adhesive?" I ask.

"Yes!" He says. "You'll have to take that shoe off. Otherwise you'll be stuck down here."

I bend down to remove the shoe and he collects some of the adhesive in a container. We're about to leave but two alien robot things appear out of nowhere. "What are those?" I ask.

"Prison droids." Mitchell says. "They're the ship's security system. Don't worry, they focus on your adrenaline levels. If you're not scared, they won't hurt you."

"But I am scared!" I start to panic.

"Pretend you aren't," He shrugs. "Like this," He relaxes his body as the droid scans him, then it moves on to me. I try to calm down but I can't. Tentacles come out of the droid to attack me but Mitchell pushes me out of the way and the droid captures him and puts him into a glass bubble that begins to float away. I pull my magnet gun out and it attaches to the metal part of the bubble. Okay. I'm attached to a floating bubble that's probably headed out of the Earth's atmosphere. I need to come up with a way to disable the droid. I look at the settings on the magnet gun and find a pulse option. Worth a try, I shrug and set it to pulse. I picked the right option and it disables it and the bubble starts to fall. Okay, crash landing in the woods. Great. I brace myself for the impact and hope this doesn't kill us.

Somehow that crash landing didn't kill me. But I'm worried about great uncle Mitchell. I open the bubble and find him unconscious. Why does this keep happening when I'm on private missions with my loved ones? I must be bad luck. I shake Mitchell trying to wake him up as the prison droid comes out to meet us.

"Go away!" I say. "I'm not afraid and nothing is going to take my uncle away from me." I say calmly. The droid turns itself off, not detecting any fear on me. Mitchell wakes up and smiles at me.

"I told you you could do it,"

(Delly's POV)

Today has been a real bummer. I'm really dreading going back to school and getting older. When I get back to the Mystery Shack I run straight to the room I share with Peeta in the attic. Grunkle Haymitch must have seen how upset I am because he comes in seconds latter.

"What's wrong, sweetheart?" He asks.

"Summer's almost over." I explain. "I don't want to go back and… grow up."

"Hey," He says. "Getting older doesn't mean you have to grow up. Grown ups can still have fun, you know."

"But… I love it here in Panem Falls," I just want to stay here forever."

"I know, but think of it this way, you'll always have your brother." He smiles. "You two are so close."

"Yeah," I grin. "You're right. Peeta will be with me throughout the high school horror."

"Just remember that your so lucky to be close with your sibling." He says. "Some of us aren't that lucky." Then he leaves. Grunkle Haymitch is right. I'm lucky to have a brother I can trust to always be there.

Then my walkie talkie starts crackling, broadcasting what Peeta and Mitchell are talking about. "I hope your considering my offer, Peeta." Mitchell says. "I'd love to have you stay here as my apprentice. This town is a magnet for things that are special. And that includes you and me. It brought both of us here on purpose. What do you say Peeta? Stay here, be my apprentice."

"Alright." Peeta says. "I'll stay." My heart breaks. Apparently I shouldn't have trusted Peeta. I can't believe he'd just desert me for Great Uncle Mitchell. He didn't even talk to me about it! Tears begin to fall down my cheeks. Great Uncle Mitchell was right about what he wrote in journal number 3. There's nobody in Panem Falls you can trust!

When Peeta gets back he rushes up here. "Delly I just had the best day of my life!" Peeta exclaims. "There were… are you okay?" He rushes to my side and sees my tears. "What happened?"

"You took Mitchell's apprenticeship," I say.

"How did you-"

"Your walkie talkie broadcasted the whole conversation."

"Delly," He says. "This is a really good opportunity for me."

"Well it's a horrible opportunity for me!" I shout. "I had the worst day of my life! You were the only person I could count on to be there, and now you're leaving too!"

"I'll still visit." He says. "And we can chat online all the time. We can make this work."

"I don't want it to work!... I wish summer could last forever."

"Delly," He wipes a tear from my face. "This is part of growing up. Things change… Summer ends." The remaining pieces of my heart shatter when he says this. This was probably the worst thing he could say to me. I'm broken. I grab my backpack, run out of the Mystery Shack and into the woods, tears blurring my vision. He promised me we wouldn't end up like Haymitch and Mitchell but we're following in their footsteps… Only sooner.

I sit down against a tree and begin to look through my bag for my candy. The dumb bag is filled with books and chewed up pens. I grabbed Peeta's bag on accident. Great, this day couldn't possibly get any worse. "It's not fare." I cross my arms. "I wish summer could last forever."

"That might be possible," A familiar voice says. I turn around and find the time traveler woman, I think her name was Wiress.

"Aren't you mad at me and my brother?" I wipe my eyes."

"No," She says. "That was in the past. Let's talk about the future… Or as you wish, lack of future."

"Yeah," I say. "I want it to be now forever… Can you do that?"

"Of course." She smiles. "It's called a time bubble, and it prevents time from going forward. Summer can last as long as you want it to. I just need you to. I just need you to get a little gizmo for me from your uncle. Something small, he won't notice it's missing."

"Oh," I say. "Maybe Peeta has something like that in his bag." I search through it. He has been spending a lot of time with Mitchell lately.

(Peeta's POV)

"Let me guess," Great Uncle Mitchell walks into the attic. "Delly didn't take it well?"

"Maybe I'm making the wrong decision." I say. "I think I need more time to think about the apprenticeship."

"Okay, but Peeta we need to focus on our mission right now. The rift. I've got the glue."

I run to my backpack and pull it open only to find party invitations and confetti. Delly took my bag on accident. "Oh, no." I say.

(Delly's POV)

I find a glass bubble with a gloating galaxy inside. "Is this it?" I hold it up to Wiress.

"Yes!" She says excitedly. "That's it! Hand it over and… I'll do my thing,"

"Okay," I hand it to her.

She grins like a psychopath then throws the bubble to the ground. "Oops!" She starts laughing like a maniac. Then she takes her goggles off to reveal a pair of eerily familiar looking eyes. These eyes belong to Bill Cipher.

(Bill's POV)

That was child's play! I snap my fingers knocking shooting star out. Then I come out of  
Wiress's body in my own physical form. After all these years of waiting I finally have a physical form on Earth!

"At long, long last!" I shout so everyone in this not so sleepy little town can hear me. "The gateway between worlds is open!" I open the portal to my world and it rises into the sky in the shape of an 'x'. "The event one billion year prophesied has come to pass! The day has come! The world is finally mine!"

(Peeta's POV)

I follow Mitchell outside and find a blood red 'x' in the sky. "What's going on?" I ask as the wind picks up. "What is that?"

"We're too late." He says. "It's the end of the world."

 **I hope you guys liked this chapter. We are nearing the end of this story, there are only four chapters left. Have a great day, I'm hoping to post the next chapter tomorrow.**


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Weirdmageddon Part 1

(Bill's POV)

"All right, listen up you one life spanned, three dimension, five sensed skin puppets," I say to the townspeople gathered at city hall. "For a trillion years I've been trapped in my own decaying dimension, waiting for a new universe to call my own. The names Bill, but you can call me your new lord and master for all eternity. Now, meet my gang of interdimensional criminals and nightmares I call my friends." I introduce them as they jump out of the portal then set them free in the town. "Ok. Now where do I start? Let's see, I could really use a castle of some kind… And how about some bubbles of pure madness?" I snap my fingers redecorating the town with weirdness. "This party never stops!" I say. "Time is dead, and meaning has no meaning. Existence is upside down, and I reign supreme. Welcome one and all to Weirdmageddon."

(Peeta's POV)

I watch with Great Uncle Mitchell as a stampede of animals- and gnomes- sprint out of the forest. I get knocked over and Mitchell helps me up before I get trampled. "We need to stop Bill- and quick." He says. "Every minute he's in our world, he grows stronger."

"Alright." I sniff. "The rift… it must have cracked in my backpack when Delly took it… I hope she's okay."

"Before we can find Delly, we must defeat Bill, Peeta." He tells me. "Our best shot at defeating Bill is to knock him back into the rift before Weirdmegeddon spreads to the whole world."

"Is it really that easy?"

"I'm not sure." He shrugs. "But we have to try."

(Cato's POV)

Today is just another boring day in the Panem Falls Maximum Security Prison. I hate Peeta Mellark. He's the reason I'm stuck in jail. I hate all the Mellarks… Except for Delly. I'll win her heart someday, and then she'll be my queen.

Our counselor had me and the other inmates doing finger paintings to express our feelings. I painted a decapitated Peeta Mellark, but the counselor thought it was too violent. But the inmates backed me up. They started a riot and now I watch them fight the cops. Those inmates really love me. I can use this to my advantage.

That's when a wall is knocked down by a giant goat as big as the building, exposing the state Panem Falls is in. I step outside prison with a huge grin. Bill came through.

(Peeta's POV)

We hide at the top of the church behind Bill. Mitchell has a black suitcase. "It's a quantum destabilizer." He explains in a whisper. "It has the power to knock Bill through the rift. But I only have one shot." Okay. I think as he aims the machine at Bill. Please don't miss! This could be our only chance to stop Bill. Just as he's about to fire, a giant bubble floats through, animating the church bell. This surprises Mitchell causing him to fire the machine and miss. Great timing, I think. And now Bill knows exactly where we are. Bill shoots a laser at the church tower and the top blows off, knocking us to the ground.

Mitchell gets up and moves toward me. "Peeta," He shoves a bag with all three journals in it at me. "Listen, you can still stop Bill. There's another way to defeat-" Bill comes closer to the church tower. "There's no time. You need to hide. Don't let Bill find you. Run!"

So I run out of the church and into a alley where I watch Bill turn Mitchell into a gold statue. "Great Uncle MItchell!" I shout. I clench my fists. Bill crossed the line. Nobody hurts my family! "That's enough!" I yell at Bill and then he's right in front of me. "Hand over my uncle or else!"

"You think you can stop me?" He asks. "Go ahead, do it pine tree. Show me what you've got."

"I… uh…"

"Do it kid! Do some brilliant thing that takes me down right now." He taunts me. "What do you got, pine tree? Everyone's waiting. Do it?"

I grind my teeth together. I don't think I've ever been this angry- no furious- before. "BILL!" I scream and leap toward him trying to punch him in the eye but he throws me backward and I hit the concrete.

My eyelids are heavy, but i'm pretty sure Bill is right in front of me. "Don't be a hero, kid." He says. "This is what happens to heroes in my world." The last thing I see before I pass out is all three of Great Uncle Mitchell's journals burning. Then everything's black.

It's been three days since Weirdmageddon began. At least I think so… I'm not sure how long I was unconscious for. Panem Falls is a wasteland, and I haven't seen anyone since I awoke in the darkness of night. There's gotta be other people out here. I can't be the only survivor. Right?

I decide to go to the mall to look for survivors. The mall is the perfect place to go during the apocalypse. With all those stores you could find supplies. When I get to the food court, I find a plate of nachos. Just sitting there. Tempting me. I haven't eaten very much during the past three days. I've for the most part been stuck eating tree bark. So even though the random plate of nachos looks suspicious I cave in. I need food. Real food. Unfortunately, I was right, the nachos were a trick and a net springs up around me, entrapping me. I struggle to free myself until someone comes out from a bush. I relax when I recognize her. Katniss.

"Oh." She says. "Peeta… I'm sorry for trapping you." She walks closer and sets me free.

"Katniss," I smile. "I haven't seen anyone for days… I… I thought I was the last one."

"No. There's others." She attempts to fix her messy braid. "I saw Gloss or whatever his name is- running around the mall like a lunatic."

"What is Bill doing to them?"

"He has these eye-bats searching the town for survivors. They're turning the townspeople to stone and bringing them to Bill's castle." She explains. "I barely escaped, but he's got my friends… and I haven't seen my family."

"How did you escape?" I question.

"My dad trained me and my brothers for the apocalypse." She says. "Kind of cool that his paranoia paid off."

I'm so glad to see someone. I pull her into a hyg. The past three days have been awful. It was rough not seeing anybody for three days straight. She wraps her arms around me and we hug. When we finally pull apart she brings me to a Hot Topic store where she made camp. "Where were you when… it happened?" I ask.

She plops down in a pile of band tee shirts she threw on the ground for a makeshift bed. "I was with my friends playing truth or dare at the cemetery. All the sudden there was eye-bats everywhere turning my friends to stone. Gale almost made it out, but he stopped to take a selfie."

"He stopped to take a selfie!" I laugh. "Wait… so you and Gale are…" I trail off.

"Yeah," She says. "We're friends again. He actually started dating Zoe… I'm just glad things are back to normal between us… What about you? Where were you when everything started?"

"I was in a fight with Delly." I confess. "Uncle Mitchell asked me to be his apprentice when summer was over. But that would mean I wouldn't go back home with Delly. She ran out crying… I should have followed her…"

That's when Gloss jumps out from behind a counter wearing a Panic! At The Disco shirt, too tight ripped jeans, and his hair is dyed pink. "How do I look?" He posses and Katniss jumps up throwing a Doctor Who Pop! Vinyl figure at him.

"Get out of my store!" She chases him out. "Go back to Build A Bear!" When she comes back she leads me to the rooftop and we look at our decaying town. "You know, those death metal album covers got it shockingly right… We need to stop Bill."

"It's no use." I shrug. "Bill said it himself. There's no room for heroes out here."

"You've defeated Bill before. Why is it so different this time?"

"I had Delly with me last time."

"Then you need to get Delly back." She says. "Look, this summer, I've seen some amazing things, but nothing as amazing as you and your sister. When you two work together, there's nothing you can't accomplish."

"But how will I find her?" I ask right before a monster eats a billboard that has been blocking the floating cliffs. Blocking a giant pink floating bubble with a shooting star engraved in it. "Delly's in there, I just know it."

"Is that… like twin ESP?" She asks.

"No, we don't have that," I say. "But we do have this thing where our allergies act up at the same time. Anyway, Delly needs us… But how are we going to get there without being caught?"

"I have an idea." She says.

(Katniss' POV)

We break into the abandoned automart. We're going to hotwire a car to rescue Delly. But we're stopped by Discount AutoMart Warriors, they capture us and put us under arrest. Then Cato comes out. "Well, well, well." He says. "Look who it is. Peeta Mellark and Katniss Everdeen."

"Cato," Peeta says. "We're trying to save Delly… Don't you care about Delly?"

"Delly doesn't need saving." He crosses his arms. "She's happy in that bubble. And anyway, I've got the only key." He takes it out and taunts us with it. "And you'll never get it from me."

"Oh, yeah?" I ask. "I think you've underestimated me." So I break the arms of the man holding me in place, push him to the ground, rip the key out of Cato's hand, grab him, drop kick him into the crowd of inmates, and hijack the car, speeding off down the road with Peeta in the passenger's seat. He stares at me for a long time. "What?" I finally ask.

"You're like, the coolest person I know," He says.

This makes me grin. "I know."

"But wait… You're fifteen, you don't have a driver's license yet, do you?"

"Nope. But my dad started teaching me how to drive when I was eight years old." I speed up when I notice the AutoMart Warriors are following us. "And anyway, you don't need a driver's licence during the apocalypse."

"Guess your right."

"Of course I am."

We near the floating cliffs and Delly's bubble, but the ground has split forming a canyon. There's no way across but I think we can make the jump. So I speed up. Then the car is in the air. For a moment it feels like flying. And then we're falling. "Brace yourself!" I scream. The car hits the ground and then it's rolling. Then I hit my head.

(Peeta's POV)

I crawl out of the upside down crashed vehicle and find a hooded figure looming above me. He pulls down the hood revealing his face. "Finnick," I say.

"Hey man…" He says. "That was a pretty sweet jump you did there."

"How… how did you get out here?" I ask.

"I've been wandering the plains helping strangers in need." He pulls Katniss' unconscious body from the car wreck.

"Is she alright?" I ask. I didn't even think of her until now.

"Let me see," He kneels down by her. "What were you two doing in that car anyway?" He asks as he checks Katniss' vitals.

"Running away from angry prison escapes." I explain. "We're here to rescue Delly, but Cato doesn't want that to happen."

"Poor kid. He's just one of Bill's puppets." He shakes his head. "Delly's out here?"

"In that bubble." I point to it."

"Oh," He says. "I've been wondering what that was… Well, I've got good news and bad news."

"Okay."

"The good news is that Katniss is going to be okay." He says. "The bad news is that we're surrounded by the inmates you were running from."

"Freeze!" Cato says.

"Cato." I sight. "Delly doesn't love you. She never did."

"That's a lie." He says."She will love me."

Katniss wakes up. I smile and look at her as I continue speaking to Cato. "Over the summer I've learned that you can't force someone to love you. You can only strive to be someone worth loving." Katniss smiles. At the beginning of the summer I thought that if I planned everything out Katniss would fall in love with me. But instead of a girlfriend, I got an amazing best friend I can always count on, and I wouldn't take that back for anything. Even though I'm still completely in love with her. Just hanging out with here makes me happy. Her friendship makes me happy.

Cato starts crying and I turn toward him. "I'm a bad person!" He wails. "Aren't I?"

"Oh, Cato." I say. "You're not a bad person… You just trusted the wrong people. Bill tricked a lot of people. But I'm sure if you stood up to Bill to free Delly, it would make you a better person in Delly's eyes."

"You think so?"

"I do."

"Okay." He says. "Will you um… will you tell Delly what I did?"

"Of course." I say.

"Alright." Cato rounds up his inmate friends and they ride off toward Bill's castle going on about how beating up children is boring and beating up demons is way more fun. I laugh. Now we can rescue Delly.

Katniss has a limp so me and Finnick help her get to the bubble. I step forward and unlock it with Cato's key. "Okay." I say. "Remember guys, this is a prison bubble designed by Bill. We've got to prepare ourselves for what we find in here."

"Whatever it is, we'll do it for Delly." Finnick says, putting his hand out.

"For Delly." Katniss places her hand on top of Finnick's.

I place my hand on theirs. "For Delly." We step forward together.

 **Are you guys liking this story so far? It's almost done. I'm going to be posting every day this week except for Thursday because that's Thanksgiving. Tell me what you think of the story so far in the reviews.**


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Weirdmageddon Part 2: Escape From Reality

(Bill's POV)

"Ladies, gentlemen, that creature with like… eighty different faces," I say. "I'd like to-"

"Eighty eight different faces!" He corrects me.

"Anyway, it's been fun turning Panem Falls inside out, rounding up terrified citizens and stacking them into this massive throne of human agony." I sit down on the throne. " But this is just the beginning. It's time to take our chaos worldwide! Go to the corners of the Earth, set the world on fire with your weirdness. This dimension is ours." I watch them run to the end of the town and then stop as if they're hit by an invisible wall.

(Peeta's POV)

We take a few steps into the prison bubble before the floor beneath us shatters and we fall. Finnick grabs me and Katniss, and holds us tight, as if to protect us. We prepare ourselves to hit the ground hard but we don't. Instead, we land in a bounce house. I look around the new world I've entered. It looks just like Panem Falls, and it's filled with talking animals, and everything Delly likes.

"This is Delly's prison?" Katniss asks.

"It must be one of Bill's tricks." I say.

That's when One Direction shows up. "Hey, look new people!" Louis Tomlinson says. I'll admit it, I know all their names… but that's mainly because Delly is a huge fan.

"We should give them a tour!" Says Harry Styles. So they show us around.

"Remember guys, this is just a trap Bill made." I remind them.

"Who's Bill?" Liam Payne asks. "Because the creator of this world is Delly, and she lives in the top of the tallest tower."

We ditch One Direction and find the tallest tower and sneak in. We find Delly doodling in a notebook.

"Delly?" I ask. She looks up. "I was so worried about you."

She smiles. "So was I," She runs over to hug me.

"Now that we found you, we can leave this dumb bubble and save Panem Falls." I say and she steps away from me.

"Peeta, I woke up here, and I was the ruler. I created the perfect version of Panem Falls so it could be summer forever." She says. "And now that you guys are here, it's perfect."

"And what about our uncles?" I question.

She frowns. "They aren't here?"

"Nope." I cross my arms. "Bill turned Great Uncle Mitchell into a golden statue, and I haven't even seen Grunkle Haymitch since Weirdmageddon started."

"Oh." She says. "I still think we should stay… It's a lot safer here." She claps her hands twice and our wounds are healed and we're dressed in fresh clothing.

"Delly," Katniss says. "The townspeople need us. We can't just abandon them."

"But Katniss," She pleads. "If you leave, you won't be able to meet your little sister."

"She's here?" Katniss says.

"If you want her to be." Delly shrugs and a four year old girl with blue eyes and blonde hair pulled into two braids skips into the room stopping in front of Katniss.

"Prim?" Katniss bends down to be at eye level with the girl. "I'm your sister."

The little girl grins. "Fowow me, I want to show you something." Katniss takes her hand and Prim leads her out of the building.

"Delly," Finnick says. "That girl wasn't really Katniss' sister."

Delly ignores Finnick. "There's somebody who wants to see you too, Finnick."

A redheaded man walks in. "Finnick, my son! Would you like to play a few rounds of catch with me?"

"Yes." He answers and they walk out together.

"Delly." I plead. "Those aren't they're family members," Finnick's dad was never around and his mother died, that's why his grandma, Mags raised him. And Katniss doesn't have a sister. She only has brothers, and her mom isn't in the picture. I don't know why, but I know the whole thing is a very sensitive topic for Katniss. "Why are you doing this to them?"

"I'm not the one doing it, Peeta." Delly says. "They are."

"What do you mean?"

"This place takes your hopes and dreams and makes them true."

"But it's not true." I counter back. "It's just an illusion."

(Bill's POV)

Why can't we leave this stupid town? It's like there's a barrier of some kind, keeping the weirdness inside the town. Mitchell studied this town for years. He might know a few things about the town.

"Bill!" One of my friends runs in. "Cato failed. Peeta entered Delly's bubble."

"Oh, I'm not worried about that." I say. "That bubble is my most diabolical trap yet. It would take a will of titanium to resist its temptations."

(Peeta's POV)

I'm at a place called Giggle Creek. I swear, these names Delly created are so dumb. I sit down and blow dandelions. How am I going to convince Delly to leave with me? What if I can't?

"Peeta," Katniss says, and sits down next to me. "I'm glad I found you."

"I thought you were with… your sister."

"She's getting ice cream."

"You left her alone… She's four."

"It's not like there's anything dangerous about this place." She says.

"Well, it's a lot safer here than in the real world." I say. "Katniss laughs and stares at me for a long time. "What?" I finally ask.

"Nothing," She says. "It's just that you'd be my dream guy if you were older."

"Really?" I'm surprised by this. Katniss is actually interested in me?

"Yeah." She says. "Wait a minute, you can ask Delly for anything and it would happen, right?"

"Yeah, I guess." I shrug.

"So you could ask Delly to make you older. Then we could be together." Katniss is right. We could be together this way. "Come on Peeta, take my hand." She holds it out. I start to realize Katniss would never say something like that. It's just a cruel trick, just like the one the shapeshifter pulled on me. I guess Katniss is my weakness. But this isn't the real Katniss, and I need to get the others out of here before this place gets to them. This really is a sick trap. I back away from 'Katniss' and she turns into cockroaches and crawls away.

The world darkens and stuffed animals tied at the neck by ropes drop down from a tree. It looks like they were hung. "You better be careful what you say." The stuffed animals warn me. "In Dellyland you're always being watched." Then the ropes pull the stuffed animals back into the trees and the world brightens again. I've gotta get out of here.

"I can't stand another minute here." I say. "I need to get back to reality."

All the sudden, I'm surrounded by One direction dressed as cops. "Peeta Mellark," They say. "You are under arrest for breaking Dellyland's one rule by mentioning reality. You need to plead your case of 'Fantasy vs Reality' in court.

They take me to the courthouse and gather everyone in Dellyland. The judge is a giant stuffed cat. The jury is made up of Delly. One Direction brings out Delly's memory ook once the trial begins. The first memory begins to play out on the page of the book.

It was October 10th, our second grade picture day. Right before our pictures were taken a bully stuck a piece of gum in Delly's hair, she bursted into tears and ran away.

"That was just one day." I say.

"Alright, then how about your fourth grade Valentine's day party?" The memory starts.

Delly got a lot of cards that day, but I didn't get any. I was never popular in school, but everyone gets a Valentine's day card. I've always been jealous of how easily social interactions come to Delly. One of our classmates started making fun of me saying he couldn't believe I was Delly's brother. I left the classroom and ran to the janitor's closet.

"That was in the past." I point out.

"Has your life honestly gotten any better?" Zayn asks. "I mean, think about everything that went wrong this summer. You've been rejected by Katniss, you failed to stop Bill, and you argued with your sister. Face it kid, reality sucks."

(Delly's POV)

"Wait!" Peeta says. "I didn't get to plead my case."

"Fine," The judge says. "Who is your witness?"

"I call to witness Delly."

"Can you do that?" I ask in surprise. I never expected to be called to witness during this trial. This was just supposed to make Peeta realize how terrible reality is and make him want to stay here in Dellyland forever.

"I guess," The judge says.

"Okay," Peeta says. "First of all, I'll never be as amazing as what you've created, Delly. But I know you, and I know you don't really want to stay here. You're just afraid of growing up. Stop hiding from the bad things Delly, we can get through them together." He grabs the memory book. "See on picture day I was there for you." It's true. After I ran away, Peeta rushed to my side and shaved a section of his head, and I shaved off the section with gum on it. Mom was so mad when we got home. And on Valentine's day, I made Peeta a giant card out of all of mine, and I slid it under the door to the janitor's closet.

"As long as we face Bill together, we can accomplish anything." He tells me. "I was foolish to think I could be Great Uncle Mitchell's apprentice. I'd miss you too much. I'm not taking the offer."

"You're not?" I ask.

"Nope." He shuts the memory book. "We're going to go home together, and grow up together." He puts his arms around me. "Awkward sibling hug?"

"Sincere sibling hug," I put my arms around him.

We both pad each other's back and say 'pat pat'. When we pull apart I notice Dellyland has gone completely dark. The stuffed animals have turned into monsters. Finnick and Katniss stand there looking around.

"Should we start running?" Finnick asks.

"Yep." Peeta takes my hand and Finnick takes Katniss hand and we run. I don't think I hate running, I realize. I've done too much of it this summer. We're running away from strange creatures every other day. But I know that when we reenter reality we're not going to run away. We're going to face Bill. And I'm going to fix everything. Finnick pulls a needle out of giant ball of yarn and we run to the edge of Dellyland. He pops the bubble and we land roughly on the cliffs overlooking Panem Falls. We stare at the wasteland Panem Falls has become. I feel responsible.

"This is all my fault," I admit. "Bill tricked me into giving him the thingy."

"The rift?" Peeta asks. "Nevermind. It's okay. We're going to fix this. Together."

We decide to go the the Mystery Shack and find that it's in shambles… just how we left it. We open the door and are met with several familiar faces.

 **I hope you guys liked this chapter! I really wanted to post this specific chapter today because one year ago today, the episode this chapter was based on was aired. Thank you guys so much for reading my stories. I'm not going to post tomorrow because it's Thanksgiving but I'm going to be back on Friday with a surprise. Have a great Thanksgiving, and if you don't celebrate Thanksgiving, have a great day.**


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Weirdmageddon Part 2: Take Back the Falls

(Peeta's POV)

"Kids?" Haymitch asks in surprise.

"Grunkle Haymitch!" He wraps both of us in his arms and holds us tight.

"I'm so glad you're safe." He says. "And together."

"What's your story?" I ask. "What have you been doing since Weirdmaggedon started?

"I've been hiding out in the Mystery Shack." He says. "And brought other refugees here. The house is still protected from Bill's weirdness thanks to that unicorn hair. I elected myself Chief of Panem Falls." He finally lets go of us and grabs Finnick and Katniss pulling them into a hug.

Someone turns the TV to the news channel. Effie Trinket stands in a dark room. "This is Effie Trinket reporting from inside Bill's fearamid."

"That woman is insane," Haymitch says. "But I've got to admit, she's pretty cute." I gag, gross.

"Bill has turned all the townspeople to stone." Effie says. "And made them into a throne. This is Effie Trinket, and I'm being turned to stone." Then she's stone and the TV turns off.

"We need to stop Bill." Delly tells the refugees.

"My uncle Mitchell knows Bill's weakness," I explain. "If we can rescue him, we can rescue everyone."

"We aren't going anywhere." Haymitch says. "The shack is the only safe place from Bill. If we go out there, we're just another part of his throne."

"I have an idea." Beetee says all the sudden. "But I'm going to need everyone to work together."

(Mitchell's POV)

I wake up with my leg chained to the floor. Bill. "Let me go you insane, three sided-" I look around. "What is this place?"

A piano starts playing and Bill rises from the ground playing it and singing. "We'll meet again. Don't know where. Don't know when. Oh, I know we'll meet again some sunny day."

"Where am I?" I ask and Bill stops playing.

"The penthouse suit, sixer." He says. "The tip of the pyramid. Make yourself comfortable."

I reluctantly sit down on a couch. "Alright, Bill. I'm still alive… You must want something."

"Well, you may have noticed I've had a multi-dimensional makeover." He says. "I control space, matter, and now that Time Baby is out of the way, I control time itself. But it wasn't always this way. You think those chains are tight, imagine living in the second dimension, flat minds in a flat world with flat dreams. I liberated my dimension, and now I'm here to liberate yours. There's just one hitch."

I roll my eyes. "What?"

"Well, as it turns out, my weirdness can't escape the magical confines of this town. There's something keeping me in."

This catches my attention and I sit up straighter. "Incredible! Panem Falls natural law of weirdness magnetism. I studied it years ago."

"Did you find a way to undo it?"

"Yes." I say. "There's a simple equation that could collapse the barrier. But I'll never tell you."

Bill narrows his eye at me. "Listen Mitchell, if you just tell me that equation, you're dimension will be free. Anything will be possible. I'll remake a fun world, a better world. A party that never ends with a host that never dies. No more restrictions or laws, you'd be one of us."

"You're insane if you think I'd help you." I say.

He laughs. "I'm insane either way. I'll just get that equation from your mind."

"You know the rules," I say. "You may be able to haunt my dreams but you can't enter my mind unless I shake your hand and let you in."

He sighs. "You're making this so much harder than it needs to be, Mitchell. Oh, well. Everyone has a weakness. I'll make you talk it's only a matter of time."

(Haymitch's POV)

Old Man Latier finally reveals his plans to save my brother. Funny thing about my brother. He always needs saving. He's going to turn the Mystery Shack into a robot so they can fight Bill within the protection of the shack. It's dumb.

Why should I help rescue my brother once again? It's not like he ever thanked me for spending every night in the basement, desperately trying to save him for thirty years! I wasted thirty years of my life trying to save him, and he couldn't even thank me?

So I sit back and watch everyone else turn the shack into a robot. I'm not wasting anymore of my time trying to save a brother who doesn't love me.

(Delly's POV)

We made a flag for our resistance. And I made sweaters. I even made one for Madge Undersee, even though we don't get along very well. She reluctantly put on the llama sweater, saying it was only because she was getting cold in her torn up designer clothing. I think we have a shot at defeating Bill. I really do. Haymitch has been grumby ever since we decided to rescue Mitchell and it's ruining Peeta's mood.  
"My only birthday wish is to survive the summer," Peeta says. I forgot our birthday. It's in two days.

"If we live, the whole town will throw you a party," Finnick promises.

He smiles than looks at Haymitch. "What's wrong?"

"Why should I help Mitchell? He never even thanked me for saving him?"

"Because Bill is going to destroy everything, and our only chance is to save him!" Peeta snaps.

"I just don't understand why Mitchell is the hero here when Weirdmaggedon is all his fault." Says Haymitch.

"He's a hero because he didn't hide when things got bad," Peeta says.

"If he'd hide, he would still be alive."

"The plans going to work." I say. That day we finish the robot and head to Bill's fearamid.

(Bill's POV)

"Oh, how cute," I say when I see a robotic version of the Mystery Shack headed my way. "They're trying to fight back."

"The kids aren't in there, are they?" Mitchell sounds worried. I grin. I think I've just found his weakness.

"I wonder if torturing those kids will get you to talk." I say.

"Bill, please don't-" I turn him into a statue again.

I step outside. If they want a fight, that's what they'll get. Before I can do any damage, the shack rips out my eye. Great! This is going to take forever to regenerate my eye!

(Peeta's POV)

We sneak into Bill's fearamid right after we pull his eye out. He's angry so we hurry. We find Mitchell, but aren't sure how to unfreeze him.

"Maybe we should keep him like this," Haymitch says. "He's a lot nicer this way."

"We need him unfrozen to stop Bill." I say.

"I know how to unfreeze everyone." I hear Cato's voice say. I look around and find him in a giant cage by Bill's thrown. We let Cato out.

"How?" Delly crosses her arms.

"If you pull one person out from the throne, it will fall apart. Everyone will unfreeze." Cato says.

So I find Gale and pull him out. The throne falls apart and everyone unfreezes. Katniss runs to her dad and brothers. I look for Mitchell. He runs over and hugs Beetee.

"Beetee," Mitchell says. "I haven't seen you since we parted ways… You must hate me."

"I've tried forgettin'. Maybe I should try forgiving."I look at Haymitch. He's angry. Very angry. So I walk over to him and hug him.

"You're a good uncle." I confess. "I know you were only hard on me to make me tougher… Thank you for that."

"You're welcome." He smiles and hugs me back. "You're my favorite great nephew, you know."

I laugh. "I'm your only great nephew."

"Well, if I had another, you'd still be my favorite."

"I love you."

"Love you too, kid."

After a moment, I turn toward Mitchell and pull away from Haymitch. "You said you knew another way to defeat Bill."

"I do!" He looks through his jacket. "Does anyone have a pen or pencil? Anything to write with?"

"I have some blue spray paint," Gale pulls it out with a shrug. "I guess you can use it."

"That would be perfect," Mitchell says and Gale hands it over. He starts drawing a circle with symbols inside. This wheel is a prophecy." Mitchell explains. "I found the drawings inside a cave in the floating cliffs. I understood a few of the symbols then, but now that you're all here, all the symbols make perfect sense to me.

"How is a circle going to defeat Bill?" Haymitch asks.

"They symbols can create a force strong enough to defeat Bill." Mitchell says. "It's destiny."

"How does it work?" Delly asks.

"Each symbol matches up with you, it might be something you're wearing or something that represents your personality."

I step forward to examine the wheel closer. The first symbol is a pair of glasses, the second is some kind of trout, the third is a pine tree, next to it is a Mockingjay catching an arrow in it's beak, than a star with an eye in the middle, next to that a shooting star. Next to the shooting star is a heart that has been sewn back together, next to that is a llama, next to that is Mitchell's six fingered hand, and finally next to that, is a question mark.

We start to move to our symbols. I'm obviously the pine tree, my hat has the same drawing on it and Bill always calls me pine tree. Delly is the shooting star, Katniss is the Mockingjay, Finnick is the rainbow trout, Mitchell is the six fingered hand, Cato is the star with the eye inside, that's the Tent of Telepathy logo. Gale is the stitched up heart because the design is on the hoodie he always wears. It's getting harder to find the other symbols. Madge might be the llama because it's on the sweater Delly made her wear. The glasses turn out to be Beetee, all we're left with is the question mark. We stare at it for a long time.

"Mr. Mystery!" Finnick finally says. "The question mark is you Haymitch."

"Me?" He asks. "I don't know…"

"It's gotta be you, Haymitch." Mitchell says.

"Why should I help you?" Haymitch asks.

"Because if you don't, Bill's going to win, and kill all of us." Mitchell says.

"Fine!" He stomps over the the question mark symbol.

"Now," Mitchell says. "We have to hold hands." Everyone locks hands but Haymitch doesn't take Mitchell's.

"I'm not holding your hand until you thank me." Haymitch says.

"Thank you." Mitchell says between clenched teeth.

Haymitch takes Mitchell's hand. "You see," Haymitch says. "Between me and him, I'm not always the bad twin."

"Between him and me," Mitchell corrects him. "Grammar, Haymitch."

Haymitch pushes Mitchell away. "I'll grammar Haymitch you!" And fists start flying.

"Stop it!" Delly says.

"Can you two just get along for a few minutes so we can stop Bill?" I ask.

"It's too late for that!" Bill says. We spin around and realize he's beaten the Mystery Shack and regenerated his eye. He laughs at us.

 **Hey guys, I hope you had a good Thanksgiving. I did another double upload so chapter 20 is out!**


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Weirdmageddon Part 4: Somewhere in the Woods

(Peeta's POV)

"This is too perfect!" Bill laughs. "Didn't you brainiacs know the zodiac doesn't work if you don't all hold hands? And even better, you've brought every threat to my power together in one easy-to-burn circle!" He snaps and the circle bursts into flames.

We jump away quickly and somehow escape the flaming circle. "Ah!" Madge screams. "My hair!"

"Ah!" Gale screams. "My hair… also!"

They pat at their hair and extinguish the fire from their heads. Bill grabs Haymitch and Mitchell.

"You guys want to see what happens to your friends when you can't get along?" Bill asks.

"You give them back!" Beetee says.

"You've gone too far, Cipher!" Cato says.

"Yeah!" Katniss says. "We're not scared of you!"

"Oh, but you should be." Bill snaps and everyone except Delly, me and our uncles start floating, then they are replaced by a tapestry of each of them screaming in front of their symbols. Then a cage falls over me and Delly, trapping us.

"You can still save your family, Mitchell." Bill says. "Tell me how to get out of this town and I'll spare the kids."

"Don't do it," Delly says. "Bill makes bad deals."

"Don't toy with me, shooting star," Bill says. "I see everything."

"Not anymore." Delly sprays Bill's eye with Gale's spray paint, then we move to escape from the cage, which is easy because we're small enough to fit through the space between the bars.

"Run!" Mitchell tells us, so we take off down the hallway. Once Bill regains his eyesight he follows us. He's catching up to us. Then Delly uses her grappling hook so we can escape up a chute.

(Haymitch's POV)

Bill puts me into a cage with Mitchell before he chases after the kids. "He's going to kill them, isn't he?" I ask.

Mitchell nods. "If he catches them."

I sit down on the floor. "The kids are going to die and it's all my fault, just because I couldn't shake your stupid hand." I say. "Dad was right. I am a screw up."

"Don't blame yourself, Haymitch." Mitchell tries to comfort me. "I'm the one who made a deal with Bill in the first place. You would have seen Bill for the scam artist he is." Mitchell sits down next to me. It's like nothing has changed between us, and everything has at the same time. "How did things get so messed up between us?"

I shrug. "We used to be like Peeta and Delly… The world's about to end and they still work together… How do they do it?"

"They're kids…" Mitchell trails off and stands up. "I'm going to let Bill into my mind. Even if everything gets destroyed, as long as the kids will have a chance."

"Are you kidding me?" I stand up. "Is this our only option?"

"Bill is only weak in the mindspace." He explains. "If I didn't have this metal plate in my head, you could use a memory gun to erase Bill from my mind."

"What if he goes into my head?" I asks after a moment. "My brain is good for nothing, anyway."

"Bill doesn't need anything from your mind." Mitchell says. "It has to be me. We need to take this deal, it's the only way he'll agree to spare you and the kids."

"You really think he'll stay true to the deal?" I ask.

"What other choice do we have?"

(Peeta's POV)

We hit a dead end and Bill captures us, bringing us back to our uncles. He really is dark, he's going to kill us in front of our uncles. "Time's up, sixer." Bill says. "Now it's time for these brats to die!"

"Wait!" Mitchell says. "We can make a deal. My only condition is that you let the kids go."

Bill sets us down. "Good choice."

"Don't do it, Mitchell." Says Haymitch. "He'll destroy our universe."

"It's the only way,"

Bill laughs. "You can't even get along now. That's sad."

"Don't trust him!" I say.

Bill shakes hands with Mitchell. "It's a DEAL!"

(Bill's POV)

Mitchell really cleared his mind. He used to have all this clutter, a swingset, a boat… but his mind is only one single door. I have to admit, I love the simplicity of it all. Makes my job easier.

I open the door to find Haymitch playing paddleboard in the Mystery Shack. "What?" I'm confused.

Haymitch laughs. "I do a pretty good impression of my brother don't I?"

(Mitchell's POV)

I take out the memory gun, point it at Haymitch, and pull the trigger. It's going to completely erase his memories. The good, the bad, everything that makes Haymitch… Haymitch. I wish more than anything that I could go back and change things. We could've sailed the world. Together.

(Haymitch's POV)

"The deal's off!" Bill says right before the door closes, and the room is enveloped in blue fire.

"You're going down Bill," I say. "You're getting erased. Memory gun. Pretty clever, huh?"

"Don't you realize you're destroying your own mind, too?" Bill asks.

"It's not like I used this space for much." I shrug.

"Let me out of here!"

"You're a real wise guy," I say. "But you made one fatal mistake: You messed with my family."

"I'll give you anything!" Bill pleads. "Money! Fame! Riches! Infinite power! Your own galaxy! Please!"

"Nope,"

"My time has come to burn." Bill says. "I invoke the ancient power that I may return! Haymitch!"

I've had enough of this one-eyed triangle demon, so I stand up and punch Bill in the eye, he breaks up into several pieces. I sit back down and grab a picture of Peeta and Delly and smile. These kids were worth losing my mind. "Guess I was good for something after all."

(Peeta's POV)

I realize Haymitch and Mitchell stitched places. Mitchell is erasing Bill out of Haymitch's mind. Haymitch is a hero for sacrificing his mind for all our lives. When it's all over, everything related to Weirdmageddon is sucked up into the portal and then it closes. Our friends aren't tapestries anymore. All that's left of Weirdmageddon is Bill's petrified physical form. We're in the woods. Haymitch wakes up and we run over to hug him.

"You did it!" Delly says.

"What are your names?" Haymitch asks.

Mitchell pulls me and Delly aside. "I had to erase his mind to defeat Bill. Haymitch has no idea what he did but he saved the world… He saved me." Mitchell kneels down next to him. "You're a hero, Haymitch."

Somehow, over the past few days since Weirdmageddon ended, Haymitch got his memories back. We showed him pictures and videos from our summer together, and it seemed to help him. Beetee told us it was possible to regain memories taken by the memory gun. He was completely insane before we helped him. I've never seen Haymitch happier.

There are a few side effects from Weirdmageddon that haven't gone away yet. Like, for instance, the dead keep popping up out of their graves at the Hawthorne cemetery.

The major created his law against talking about Weirdmageddon in public. It's too soon for a lot of people. The Undersee family went broke because Madge's dad invested all his money in weirdness bonds. They had to sell their mansion. You'll never guess he bought it. Old Man Latier did. He made a lot of money in the past few days selling his old patients. Today, is me and Delly's birthday… and our last day in Panem Falls. The whole town is celebrating at the Mystery Shack. They bring out the cake and sing Happy Birthday to us.

"Make a wish!" Finnick calls.

"Okay." I say. "If you would have asked me what I wanted on my first day here, I would have said 'adventure, mystery, and true friends'. But looking here at all of you I realize that every wish came true. I have everything I wanted."

"If I had one wish, it would be to shrink all of you with a shrink ray and bring you home with us in my pocket." Delly says. "But since that's impossible." She turns to Mitchell. "Is that possible?" He shrugs. "Since that's probably impossible, my only wish is for everyone to sign my scrapbook. I'll never forget you guys." We blow out the candles, and Katniss runs up to us pulling us into a hug.

"I now officially declare you technically teenagers." She says. "Welcome to angst and acne forever." The other teenagers run up and start chanting, 'One of us! One of us!'

(Haymitch's POV)

I'm so happy to see the kids celebrating their thirteenth birthday, I'm going to miss them when they leave. Someone taps my shoulder. I turn around and find Mitchell. "Can I speak with you in private?" He asks. So I follow him to the back of the shack.

"What's up?"

"I didn't want to say anything with everyone listening, but we've got a problem." Mitchell says. "Weirdmageddon has been contained but I'm detecting some strange new anomalies near the arctic ocean." He pulls out a map. "I want to go investigate it but I think I might be too old to go it alone."

I smile. "Are you saying you need someone to help you sail around the world on the adventure of a lifetime?"

"I don't just want anyone, I want it to be you." He says. "Will you give me a second chance?"

"I'll do it," I say. "But I think the Mystery Shack will need a new manager."

"Oh. I hadn't thought about that,"

"I know the perfect person for the job." I say. "Finnick. He's worked here most of his life. The shack is like a second home to him. He loves the old shack more than I do."

"Alright then," Mitchell says. "The Mystery Shack has a new manager."

(Peeta's POV)

We wait at the bus stop with Finnick, Katniss, Annie and our uncles. I don't want to leave, but I've got a feeling I'll come back. This town is my home. Way more than California ever was.

Katniss takes off my hat and replaces it with her beanie, then she places my hat on her head. "Something to remember me by." Then she hands me a folded piece of paper. "Read it the next time you miss Panem Falls."

The bus pulls up and the doors open. "I guess it's time to leave." Delly walks forward but Buttercup stands in her way. "Oh, Buttercup, I wish I could take you home, but… Mom and Dad won't let us keep a pig." Delly starts crying.

"You know what," Haymitch picks Buttercup up and puts him on the bus. I had to deal with the pig all summer, now it's your parent's turn."

"No animals on the bus." The driver says, and our uncles pull out weapons. "Welcome aboard… pig." So we get on the bus and it moves forward, taking us away from the town that became out home. Delly puts her head on my shoulder and I pull out the paper Katniss gave me and unfold it. I miss Panem Falls already. In the center of the page, it says 'See you next summer!' and all around it are our friends signatures.

If you've ever taken a road trip through the Pacific, you've probably seen a bumper sticker for a place called Panem Falls. It's not on any maps, and most people have never heard of it. Some people think it's a myth. But if you're curious, don't wait. Take a trip. Find it. It's out there somewhere in the woods. Waiting.

 **That it! This story is over! Thank you guys so much for reading this story. I've been wanting to write a Hunger Games Gravity Falls fanfiction ever since I watched the first episode of Gravity Falls, and I decided to finally do it because Gravity Falls ended. I cut a lot of great episodes that I was originally planning to write, and I really suggest you go watch Gravity Falls. I don't really plan to make another Hunger Games fanfiction based on another movie, I'm going to try to do some fanfiction with original plots. But who knows? I might watch a really great movie tomorrow and feel the need to make it into a Hunger Games fanfiction. I don't know. I have two short Christmas stories coming out in December and then I plan to post my next story in the beginning of next year.**


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